Meatball Racing

Radio Control Blog

  • Cars
    • Electric On-Road
    • Electric Off-Road
  • Flight
    • Fixed Wing
    • Rotor
    • Rockets
  • About
  • Tracks
  • Shop
  • Cart
You are here: Home / Cars / Garden Railway Bed Installation

Garden Railway Bed Installation

December 13, 2021 by justin 3 Comments

After choosing a suitable layout and location for the crawler course and garden railway, it was time to lay the foundation.

I called 811 to make sure I wasn’t going to run into any buried pipes or wires, it was time to start digging ⛏️ The issue I needed to solve is that the selected area for my garden railway and crawler course is sloped.

Leveling the Bed Walls

The goal was to put the part of the wall that’s at the highest point flush with the ground so the lowest point only needs to be raised a little to make it all level. To do this I started digging out the perimeter of the area where the walls would go.

To give the Vita walls an anchor, I followed the suggestion in the instructions by adding a 2-foot stake to the center of the connector sections. At my local hardware store I found these aluminum “U” channels.

They fit perfectly into the center of the connecting section.

I used a small square with a bubble level to make sure it’s going straight down and not at an angle. Then I used a rubber mallet and a chunk of wood to drive it into the ground.

Here it is with the back side leveled, but not the front:

Leveling all sides is tricky. To make sure I was level across long distances, I zip-tied a level to a looong 16′ 1″x4″ cedar board (which I’ll use for track work later). This allowed me to make sure the sides were level across the 12-foot width and almost all the way down the 20-foot length.

I did have to cut 2 roots from the maple tree. They weren’t huge, so I’m sure the tree will be fine. I liken it to trimming two sucker branches from the bottom of the tree. It’s not going to affect it long term. 🌳

Leveling the center

With all sides level, it was time to level the center. This started with a lot of shoveling from the high side of the slope to the low side. Once it was somewhat close I used a rake to loosen the dirt. I used a 10-foot 2×4 with a level to act as a screed tool. I drug it across the entire area, bit by bit – leveling the dirt along the way.

Costs

This step didn’t cost a lot in materials, but it took quite a bit of time and effort. 😅

  • (4) 8′ Aluminum Channel – $50
  • (1) 16′ 1″x4″ Cedar Board – $20
  • (1) 10′ 2″x4″ Board – $6

Along with cost of the materials from the design ($430), we’re up to $506. That cost has been spread out over time because it took me a long time to work the ground to get it to this point.

Related

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road, Flight, Rotor Tagged With: 1:24 scale, G scale, garden railway

Trackbacks

  1. Garden Railway Track Work Part 1 - Base - Meatball Racing says:
    December 27, 2021 at 7:27 PM

    […] my area leveled, I laid the track out to make sure everything would fit. This was when I discovered I had to make a […]

    Reply
  2. Garden Railway Track Work Part 2 - Decking - Meatball Racing says:
    January 10, 2022 at 10:22 AM

    […] 16′ 1″x4″ Cedar board – $20 (another was purchased earlier) […]

    Reply
  3. Garden Railway Track Work Part 3 - Paint and Ballast - Meatball Racing says:
    February 21, 2022 at 11:13 AM

    […] our previous costs from design, bed install, track work part 1 & part 2 ($728) we’re up to $744. The costs have tapered off, but the […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe via Email

Meatball Racing

Cars, kids, and crashing since 2006. Let's talk about having fun, and being inclusive not exclusive. They're just toy cars after all. More about Meatball Racing.

MMR Calendar

No upcoming events

Thunder Road Calendar

  • Open Driving All Tracks May 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
  • Open Driving All Tracks May 22, 2025 at 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
  • Open Driving All Tracks May 23, 2025 at 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Sponsors

Bangoood
Bangoood

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in