My elevated semi permanent technical layout

[blid]

I haven’t shown my layout in this forum mainly because I think it isn’t much to see, but perhaps it can give others some new ideas.

 

My background is H0 and tabletop layouts. When I retired and moved, I realized that I could have a garden layout in a small part of the garden. I didn’t want it on the ground and the area wouldn’t allow it anyway. My crafting skills are limited, but driving pipes into the ground and cutting boards with a hand saw is Ok as long as furniture finish isn’t required.

 

Elevated. It is from 15†to 85†above ground.
Semi permanent. The only things left outdoors during winter (October – May) are the short pipes in the ground.
Pic 1
Technical. A fancy word from my dealer meaning a layout without any scenery.

 

In the pipes I put longer pipes as legs and a beam for the boards to rest on.
Pic 2
On top of this I place the boards and tracks.
Pic 3
The thing that proved to save it all, are the bolts with, what we call, wing nuts.
Pic 4
Before the nuts are tightened the boards are fairly easy to adjust to the geometry of the tracks. When tightened, the whole assembly gets surprisingly rigid. The grey things on the pipes are old fashioned garden hose clamps of steel. I haven’t had to adjust the height, but it can be easily done. The tracks are held in place sideways by the pieces of board. That is all for the tracks.

Here is the track plan.
Pic 5
This is what it looks like from a distance.

Pic 6

[Jerry B44]

Looks good. Prettty amazing at the different ways people come up with to make an elevated track. American ingenuity lives!   How come you take it all down in the winter?  Too much rain/snow? I see the ferns, so guess you are in the NW?

[Rich Niemeyer]

Interesting design. I would be concerned about lateral stability. Is it solid enough to prevent wobbling when trains are moving? It certainly appears portable. Love the green environment. Nothing like that where I am. Would like to see more posts!

I am building an elevated layout too, using concrete deck piers...no post hole digging! I'll try to post a picture or two later.

[blid]

By now I think you have noticed my location, Stockholm Sweden. If you check on a map you will find that it as far north as Anchorage Alaska. We have a lot of warm water coming our way from the Gulf. That helps, but in the winter the day are just as short and we do have snow and frost in the ground for a number of months. My pipes left in the ground are about one foot down but the frost can go deeper than that. When the frost melts in the spring things in or on the ground tend to move. For some reason my pipes have remained in place – so far. I haven’t started to set it up for this year yet.

[blid]

I was also concerned about the stability when I started to build it in 2011. I first tried the solution I used for my transportable tables. They had tongues protruding from the tabletops that locked the trables together vertically and horizontally. It didn’t work here.  I have attached another drawing that shows what it looks like where two boards meet. When the nuts are tightened the small pieces of board on the bolts makes the two connecting boards stick together almost like glued. If there were just straight pieces they would probably all wobble sideways together. The curves sort of anchor them sideways. The whole construction steadies itself and there are no movements at all. Not even where the legs are 85â€.

If I were to make it again and had other skills and a bigger wallet, I would choose some lightweight metal grid instead of the boards. The bigger holes the better to let rain and debris thru.

 

Forgot the attachment

[blid]

I added a 3-rail 0-gauge oval to the top level of my outdoor layout. Here is an updated track plan and a picture of a MTH 0-gauge 20-3548-1 Chessie Steam Special.