To keep or not to keep.

[mike8693]

I was in a rush to lay down my foam and get rid of the blue mess. I made this tunnel and was going to put in a retaining wall and a building up against it. If i keep it i will close it around the portals but I was thinking about cutting it off, it doesn't look as good as hoped. What do yall think?

 

[macjet]

I don't think it looks prototypical. With such a small amount of material I think the railroad would have either gone around or cut through. A tunnel would have been too expensive.

However, if you want a tunnel, build the tunnel!

 

[conrail92]

It doesn't look natural it looks like a plateau, maybe try making it more rounded and smoother if you do want a tunnel.

 

[mike8693]

the layout has very little places for structures and I was originally going to put a small farm up there but Im pretty sure Im going to take it out.

 

[FunValleyLine]

See if you can do one somewhere else or there and make you hill bigger. Some ideas from my layout.

 

[lmackattack]

it does look a little out of place with it being that flat. If you were to keep it I would make it taller and a little longer. making it taller would help the upper track have a nice rock wall back drop. It also will kind of be a divider so to speak and make that corner look more like your train it far out in the hills so to speak.
Dont feel bad my mountain/tunnel is about 2 square feet just before the track enters a closet and exits just above the entrace
. You can make anything look good with some simple thinking.

Trent

 

[mike8693]

So my next question I'm gonna cut it off here

and in the 60's would it be more common to have a natural rock wall

or a retaining wall?

 

[FunValleyLine]

Cut out of rock like the picture or any retaining wall. Cut stones, round stones, dry stacked , wood or any other would look great or a combo of several they usually use what is around.

 

[lmackattack]

I would match it to the existing layout looks. In my travels I see lots of mainline rail layed next to natural rock walls, brick/concrete retaining walls. biggest example I can think of natural walls is just north of Chatanooga TN not sure what railway ownes the line that runs with Interstate 24 but it has 100' tall rock walls just before it enters the city . Out in UT they cut the ends of the hill sides out and run the mainline right through it. some times the cut out is just a little taller than the double stacks freight trains. If you can dream of it its likely been done before

here is a pic of a main road in central Mexico. I have driven this road about 10 times and this aera is filled with cut outs like in the pic shows. there is a railway that runs through the same aera that has cuts just like the roadway does. Gravel always litters the roadway from falling rocks. Its a maintence hastel but it got the road through the hill!

 

[riverotter]

The Q&D answer would be to cut the top off and blend it into the hillside...

 

[UP2CSX]

You're going to "daylight" a tunnel, a common thing now as railroads try to eliminate the cost of tunnel maintenance. The type of cut that's left is determined by the type of rock the tunnel went through. If the tunnel wasn't lined but was drilled through solid, competent rock, the cut would look just like the inside of the tunnel without the top. If the tunnel was lined with timber or rock walls, the lining would usually be demolished, the cut would be widened, and new retaining walls would be built. How the wall would look really depends on your era. Up until about 1920, many unstable cuts were lined with rock or timber retaining walls. After that, they were almost all replaced with either cast concrete walls or interlocking concrete blocks. There are a still a few places with rock retaining walls, which look really cool, but they are very rare in the modern era.

 

[mike8693]

[/IMG]

Thanks for everyones response. I have been so busy I have a ten page paper due that I may have procrastinated on and the trains have been put on the back burner this week. I'm modeling early 60's so I'll probably go with concrete, FunValley those walls look great where did you get the rock from?

 

[FunValleyLine]

I go to Lowes and buy the paver gravel used to level pavers. I run it thru old screens, cullenders, beach toys, old coffepot parts and various other things I have collected. Various things with differents sizes to get different grades and sizes. I use a pond pump in a 5 gallon bucket to wash the gravel thru the different screens so the water recirculates.

Every size is put in different containers for different uses. I grade it out for forest rocks, wall building, ballast of different sizes and the smallest sand in the bucket at the end gets used for roads.

This particular wall is about 30 inches long and each stone is individually glued in place and then it was backfilled with the smaller gravel at the top.

The gravel is usually a dollar a bag when you get the broken ones.It takes some time to get the final product but it is all real rocks or gravel or ballast what have you. It all makes good car loads as well.