This past weekend we "broke ground" on the Spring 2006 expansion of our garden railway. As I noted in an early post, we intend to run our second line from within our detached garage, through a small hatch, and then along the entire length of our backyard fence and then returning via a reverse-loop type arrangement. Probably in the neighborhood of 130 feet of new track total.
This weekend, we installed a treated wood 2x4x8 vertical ledge with a 2x6x8 horizontal treated wood trackbed onto our existing treated fence about a foot and a half above the ground. This forms a shelf that will be the straight trackbed. We've installed a total of about 88 feet so far.
Last night I ordered 90 feet of new Aristocraft-brand straight track from Trainworld to mount onto the new trackbed. The plan is to start with this straight "point-to-point" type operation while I make and install the two reversing-loops on either end using the "ladder method" that I used last year.
I went with Aristocraft track rather than LGB brand track to save money on the expansion this year. I have never used anything but LGB track, so this will be a bit of an experiment. I hear that the Aristcraft track is every bit as good as LGB, but it stays shiny brass colored longer. I like the dark weathering of LGB track, so hopefully the shine doesn't last too long.
