Willow Creek & Orchard Valley Railroad
Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 5:03 pm
I wanted to share my progress on my backyard short line Willow Creek & Orchard Valley Railroad. Many of you have endured my questions about building switches and finding rail. As it turns out, the rail that I have is not Culp rail as was suggested but in fact Cannonball standard rail from the 1980's. I picked up about 1700 feet of it a few months ago, and have been working steadily. Yesterday my wife and I finished the curve beyond the trestle and took our first ride on the railroad.
The railroad is planned as a loop, with about 400' of main track, and another 200+ of yards and sidings. The curves are laid out at 35 feet, though they look much tighter in the photos. My beloved wife, the good sport that she is, has been helping with the project. We spent two days laying out the railroad using basic drafting methods. Long ropes, stakes, and second guessing.
The track is 7.5" gauge in the tangents, and 7.625 in the curves, laid on a mix of 12" and 13.5" wood ties depending on what was donated or scrounged from other projects. The ballast is locally sourced 3/8 blue chip from a quarry in Cazadero that supplied ballast to the North Pacific Coast Railroad. As a point of interest, the original narrow gauge right of way, and grade, runs behind my property above the track FRA (Feline Railroad Inspector) inspector in the photos. This was the line to Guerneville. There are still remnants of the railroad here and there.
I haul ballast in the (clearly) home made ballast car. I built it in a day out of scraps laying around the yard when I decided that hauling ballast in buckets would take longer than the building of the pyramids. The car has two bays, each holding about 400 lbs of rock. The doors are held shut with basic ratchet straps. It works really well. In fact, I built the curve beyond the trestle in one day, including hauling and dumping three full loads of ballast. My wife enjoys riding the loaded ballast car down the hill to the trestle along the side of garage. I can tell you, it's a thrill.
The trestle in the photos is Big Trees trestle, at 16' in length and 1' tall, it spans a seasonal creek that fills up occasionally in winter. The railroad plans call for another larger trestle at the end of track in the photos. This one will be on a curve, about 27' feet long and just under 2' high over the creek.
The main track runs behind garage to the stub switch at Newton Junction, (named by a friend of mine for the apple tree over the track). The main track along the garage runs down a short 3.5% grade to about the center of the garage, then climbs up again at about 2.5% to the stub switch.
As we progress, with lots of help from our friends (Kevin S. and his son) and my father (the old guy working on trestle bents) I will post updates. The section will be the switch and yard leads to the garage, and the main track across the front of the property. It is a lot of work, but it sure is fun.
The railroad is planned as a loop, with about 400' of main track, and another 200+ of yards and sidings. The curves are laid out at 35 feet, though they look much tighter in the photos. My beloved wife, the good sport that she is, has been helping with the project. We spent two days laying out the railroad using basic drafting methods. Long ropes, stakes, and second guessing.
The track is 7.5" gauge in the tangents, and 7.625 in the curves, laid on a mix of 12" and 13.5" wood ties depending on what was donated or scrounged from other projects. The ballast is locally sourced 3/8 blue chip from a quarry in Cazadero that supplied ballast to the North Pacific Coast Railroad. As a point of interest, the original narrow gauge right of way, and grade, runs behind my property above the track FRA (Feline Railroad Inspector) inspector in the photos. This was the line to Guerneville. There are still remnants of the railroad here and there.
I haul ballast in the (clearly) home made ballast car. I built it in a day out of scraps laying around the yard when I decided that hauling ballast in buckets would take longer than the building of the pyramids. The car has two bays, each holding about 400 lbs of rock. The doors are held shut with basic ratchet straps. It works really well. In fact, I built the curve beyond the trestle in one day, including hauling and dumping three full loads of ballast. My wife enjoys riding the loaded ballast car down the hill to the trestle along the side of garage. I can tell you, it's a thrill.
The trestle in the photos is Big Trees trestle, at 16' in length and 1' tall, it spans a seasonal creek that fills up occasionally in winter. The railroad plans call for another larger trestle at the end of track in the photos. This one will be on a curve, about 27' feet long and just under 2' high over the creek.
The main track runs behind garage to the stub switch at Newton Junction, (named by a friend of mine for the apple tree over the track). The main track along the garage runs down a short 3.5% grade to about the center of the garage, then climbs up again at about 2.5% to the stub switch.
As we progress, with lots of help from our friends (Kevin S. and his son) and my father (the old guy working on trestle bents) I will post updates. The section will be the switch and yard leads to the garage, and the main track across the front of the property. It is a lot of work, but it sure is fun.
) Because the switch is on a curve, I extended the closure rails from 49" in the standard #5 layout, to 60 and 61.25. Its not based on math, its all by eye. So far it seems to work.