All Activity

Tunnel, Portal, Wings & Cribbing Design & Construction Every Garden Railroad Needs a Tunnel! Ours is based on classic American wood timber tunnels. It’s a fancy design with portals, wing abutments, and log cribbing for the roadbed. Real log timber frames line the inside, attached to a durable hollow rectangular tube made of strong rot-proof composite decking material. Buried sturdy foundations supported the entire assembled structure above ground before we added the mountain. It even has interior incandescent lights in the ceiling. Roadbed cribbing just outside of the tunnel has wood logs stacked like a log cabin. The cribbing was filled with rocks bigger than the ¾” gaps between the logs. The ballasted roadbed sits on top of the rocks. There are five Sub-Assemblies that make up the Full Tunnel Assembly: The Tunnel, The Portal, The two Wing abutments, and the Cribbing. All of these have their own buried foundations except the portals which do not need it because they’re screwed firmly into the end of tunnel. They are joined on-site in the railroad before we added the mountain. Everything is made from redwood and composite wood for decking. Wood rots or gets eaten by termites when touching soil. I designed this so real wood does not touch any soil. All soil contact is with the rot-proof composite wood or silicone asphalt sealer. The tunnel is 14 years old and still looks perfect- even better than new I think! Feel free to copy, use or modify any of the images and video shorts you see here. I hope this video shines a light at the end of your tunnel project. Good luck with yours! Thanks for watching, John Carmichael See Other projects at Cholla Patch Garden Railroad Design & Construction Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL27sAcxJFvXMmKPEpii4HXAdzKLITFT5v

Closing before to do the 76 mm gun

some work .. tracks patina / fire engine extinguisher / lights

See: Glued Ballast & Landscape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcXDYlq8Ips&t=1071s This might be one of the most useful and practical “How to” garden railroad videos you’ll ever watch. Glued stone material has great potential for new and existing garden railroads, because it is so good, but rarely used. It drastically improves realism and durability, while decreasing maintenance time and costs. When you learn how to glue sand & gravel, you can use this technique all over your railroad for many things including track ballast, terrain and even mountains covered by different sizes of real rocks, gravel, sand and live plants. Its realistic appearance and low maintenance is why the most asked question at Cholla Patch Garden Railroad is: “How do you make your ballast”? This video is my detailed answer to such a great question. Produced by John Carmichael: Email questions to: jlcarmichael@comcast.net Cholla Patch Garden Railroad, Tucson AZ on 6/28/26. Feel free to copy, use and modify any of the images or video clips you see here. Please help us spread this useful video with your Garden Railroading friends and organizations. See more of my Design Construction videos at: Cholla Patch Garden Railroad: https://www.youtube.com/@philpappas8834 And this: The Ultimate Guide to Glued Track Ballast for Garden Railroadshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVXB0QC78Lw&t=792s

See: Glued Ballast & Landscape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcXDYlq8Ips&t=1071s This might be one of the most useful and practical “How to” garden railroad videos you’ll ever watch. Glued stone material has great potential for new and existing garden railroads, because it is so good, but rarely used. It drastically improves realism and durability, while decreasing maintenance time and costs. When you learn how to glue sand & gravel, you can use this technique all over your railroad for many things including track ballast, terrain and even mountains covered by different sizes of real rocks, gravel, sand and live plants. Its realistic appearance and low maintenance is why the most asked question at Cholla Patch Garden Railroad is: “How do you make your ballast”? This video is my detailed answer to such a great question. Produced by John Carmichael: Email questions to: jlcarmichael@comcast.net Cholla Patch Garden Railroad, Tucson AZ on 6/28/26. Feel free to copy, use and modify any of the images or video clips you see here. Please help us spread this useful video with your Garden Railroading friends and organizations. See more of my Design Construction videos at: Cholla Patch Garden Railroad: https://www.youtube.com/@philpappas8834 And this: The Ultimate Guide to Glued Track Ballast for Garden Railroadshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVXB0QC78Lw&t=792s

Before patina..........and more !!!

NEW! See my new detailed video in my Construction series: Glued Ballast & Landscape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcXDYlq8Ips&t=1071s This might be one of the most useful and practical “How to” garden railroad videos you’ll ever watch. Glued stone material has great potential for new and existing garden railroads, because it is so good, but rarely used. It drastically improves realism and durability, while decreasing maintenance time and costs. When you learn how to glue sand & gravel, you can use this technique all over your railroad for many things including track ballast, terrain and even mountains covered by different sizes of real rocks, gravel, sand and live plants. Its realistic appearance and low maintenance is why the most asked question at Cholla Patch Garden Railroad is: “How do you make your ballast”? This video is my detailed answer to such a great question. Produced by John Carmichael: Email questions to: jlcarmichael@comcast.net Cholla Patch Garden Railroad, Tucson AZ on 6/28/26. Feel free to copy, use and modify any of the images or video clips you see here. Please help us spread this useful video with your Garden Railroading friends and organizations. See more of my Design Construction videos at: Cholla Patch Garden Railroad: https://www.youtube.com/@philpappas8834 And this: The Ultimate Guide to Glued Track Ballast for Garden Railroadshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVXB0QC78Lw&t=792s

hello While you are celebrating .........🇺🇸 ((((((( I would have preferred to""" be among you ""))))) ......................;I am working Christian 👣

hello

🥵🥵 ERROR digits changed during loading 240 / 120 / 120 and not 24 / 12 / 12

forgotten ...........

AND it's not over !!!!!!!!!!

Hello I pray for a success !!!!!! 😇😇🙏 Tracks in another inovation progress To be continued ...............................

a piece of vinyl tube some string lenght glued on and my muffler ................. VRROOOOOOMMMMM !!!!!!!

Coming along very nicely!

Hello Star and hand cut stencil

hello ""Glued or not glued """ 😃that's MY question and soon ............

Hello My drive sprocket

Hello !! Nothing fixed .Just for my pleasure

Hello Thank you RAYMAN4449 Today working on the tracks (not yet wheels glued )

Fantastic work!

👍

............In progess track support roller bracket to test

Since I am happy wtih my work I gave myself today a beautiful gift. That is your BIG story ...............with HONOR !!!!! My HELLCAT is in progress Christian 👣

Very nice! Wood putty paste...clever as it looks good!