Trains @ Station Studios

Compiled by the LHR General Manager, B.J. Cott.

March 8: The first version of the Lost Hollow Railway has been decommissioned due to a job-related move. I still hope to make it out to the various steamups in the southeast Texas area over the next few months and rebuild the LHR at our next place.

I learned many things on the first version of the Lost Hollow:

1. The hardiplank roadbed system I used worked great for the soil here in Houston. Everything was rock solid and I had no problems with track alignment. Thanks to John Frank for his advice in this area. Details on the hardiplank roadbed system are available here.
2. I put ground zero too low. I should have raised it about 1-2″ more than I did. I had some problems with the lowest level train getting filled in with earth from higher points of the layout.
3. I should have used a retaining wall between the the upper and lower mainlines. Through the center section of the layout, the upper and lower mainlines were separated by 3 inches in vertical height and about 9-12 inches horizontally. I had difficulties keeping the earth on the upper mainline from running down onto the lower mainline. A retaining wall or crib system would have helped.
4. Switches were mostly unnecessary for this live steam layout. The small radius Aristocraft ones that I used were probably too small anyways.
5. We should have put down a weed/plant barrier in the loop sections of the layout to get a handle on the weeds. The layout got very weedy in the last couple of years.