Can you dig it?

I think garden railroading is uniquely linked to prototype railroading amongst the many scales in that actual digging - and often lots of it - is an integral part of railroad construction.

At our house, the narrow lot means there is only a narrow strip of land between the fence/property line and the edge of the driveway, perhaps 30 inches. This is actually perfect for the railroad. The track only requires clearance of around 6 inches, so there is plenty of space left for sidings, structures and other scene-building elements, kind of like an outdoor shelf layout.

This driveway-side strip of land will represent the North Carolina section of the layout, with the town of Otto to be located directly out the living room window and the northern terminus at Franklin appearing directly across from the front steps:



















However, to really make the most of this bit of real estate, control erosion, and generally improve the appearance of this somewhat raggedy monkey grass farm, we are going to build a simple concrete block retaining wall up the whole length of the driveway and tie into an existing wall in the back. Wall height will vary with the slope of the driveway, but the emphasis will be on easy and comfortable sitting along the entire line.

But first, the entire bank has to be excavated back toward the fence enough to allow a 16" wide foundation for the 8" block. Here are some photos of the work progressing toward the back gate, which will mark the Georgia/North Carolina state line on the railroad.


















I actually like to dig! During the winter I'll find myself looking forward to the return of warm weather and digging season. Its damn good exercise when done in earnest, which is the only way to make any progress in our combination of red clay and tree roots. A hideous example of the latter is circled in red in this next pic.


















Having the right tools is also essential. As far as I am concerned, success in these conditions requires the combined use of four tools: a combination pick-axe/mattock to break up the clay, a short pointed shovel to rough out the hole/ditch, a long-handled square edge shovel to square up the sides and carry out a lot of material, and a heavy digging bar with chisel tip for whenever you need to do some serious heavy hitting. Leave out any one of these and that part of the job slows to a difficult crawl.

The digging bar was a relatively recent revelation for me, a gift of knowledge from my friend John. Its an amazing tool, a 69" solid iron bar with a chisel tip whose 20 pound weight can be used to easily chops through roots and pry out rocks down in the hole where a shovel edge can gain little purchase. On this project, the digging bar allowed me to chop straight through the dense carpet of the monkey grass, then pry the whole root structure up so that big swaths of grass could be literally rolled up like a carpet. The main thing to remember with this tool is to use it vertically, where your strength and the weight of the bar work together. Try to swing this thing in the horizontal and you will soon be exhausted!

Here's a view of the progress from about 2/3 of the way up the driveway, which is about as far as I got before last winter arrived.

















Now that pollen season has ended work has resumed. At this point only about 4 feet remain before we reach the "state line"!

Next to be completed:
* I'll have to work my way all the way back down the driveway taking this all down another 10" for the drainage rock and the foundation.
* Build forms for the foundation, which will probably have to be poured in at least a couple lifts due to the change in elevation.
* Build the wall!

I'm hoping to enlist my brother-in-law's help for the foundation pouring and the block laying, as he is an expert in both. For me, once the digging ends it goes back to just being work!