Sam Evans

Preamble

There are many ways of creating a track bed and formation. There are many sources on the subject and many views on how to proceed. Some thoughts here:

Ground conditions.

Not an issue about realism per se, but may well affect what you can do in pursuit of same. If you are on a poor draining soil you may well be better off choosing a raised and flexible structure.  Clay moves and if you make too rigid a structure, unless you can battleship build (costly) you will be liable for some difficult repairs in the future.  A flexible build will move with the ground and while adjustment will be necessary at least each year, an major rebuild may be avoided.  A clay soil is often poor draining and, depending on location the water table may be very high.  If I were to build a ground level line, the foundation trench would become a canal.  At least if the formation is raised, water can drain away.  Any concrete foundation should be reinforced with rodding so that any cracks cannot develop into ‘steps’.  Hard packed gravel drains well and is suited to ground level lines in many ways. While it can be very hard to dig, once disturbed it will not grip vertical posts very well unless these have a good concrete foundation, so care needs to be taken if considering a raised line on such a soil. A concrete foundation would be a good way to go as the soil at the bottom of any foundation trench will be pretty stable.

Raised or Ground level?

Apart from ground conditions there are considerations of a practical nature. Ground level lines undoubtedly lend themselves to a greater sense of realism, however in a contest between arthritic joints and a ground level line the joints will always win.  There are a number of possible gambits to get round this. One is to adopt the solution used by Peter Harling and his Pimlico Tramway, and Paul Sherwood and Maesffordd http://s1.webstarts.com/maesffordd-railway , which is to raise the ‘playing field’. Another possibility is to realise that railways such as the Talyllyn and Festiniog actually ran along a ledge in a hillside, unlike the Leek and Manifold which ran in a valley bottom. This sort of situation can be suggested by suitable planting of low densely leaved shrubs or a grass bank in front of the track and taller shrubs behind, see photo below. The key word here is impressionism; one cannot slavishly replicate the landscape but one can suggest it, the eye & brain will fill in the ‘gaps’ if what is there lends them enough clues.