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Making My Roadbed

Here in southeastern Michigan it's pretty easy to find most things. But, when I started to look for the needed materials to use as a roadbed, I ran into some problems finding a source of "good" crusher fines with no real luck. I had found all types of gravel that turned out to be too large, too round etc. I also tested the materials with a nice big magnet. If it stuck to the magnet, it would stick to my engines. No thanks. I had also come across materials that just wouldn't pack or lock down to make a nice supportive bedding. So, with the grading done (fall of 1997), the basic layout ready for the track work and the 1998 winter finally gone, I had changed my plans on a roadbed system...

I had seen other people use supportive beams and posts in the past (June 1997 Garden Railways) but I never bought into it as a way to lay my own track. It always seemed like the materials used were just too weak or the elements would eat them away in no time. Plus it was a lot of work, especially in the turns. Then I saw the basic technique used by Jeffery L. Cleary and I liked what I saw. The article was online for a while but the hosting site went down and Jeff was able to repost the original article on his own site and can now be found at this link Jeff's PVC Road Bed. He used a few simple components to make up the whole system. PVC pipe for the posts, PVC sheeting and foam board (sheet insulation for houses) for the beams. A little QuickCrete and some galvanized screws made up most of the needed materials list.

Anyway, it sounded so good, I had to try it our for myself, so here is the result...

The sample picture to the left shows the track as you would see it on the layout minus the ballast. Below that is the roadbed system itself and that is hidden from sight because it's underground when installed on the layout. Once the finished product is covered with ballast nobody will know what's hidden below. The beam style system is fairly simple, it's nothing more than some thin PVC sheeting with a polystyrene foam core in the middle. The beams are then held up (or down depending on how you look at it) by PVC posts set into the ground. The post can be seen at the far right side of the picture with a cap that serves as a weather seal and a way to secure the track to the roadbed.

Now for some of the details...

My materials list:

1. PVC sheeting 1/8 inch thick.
2. Polystyrene foam 2 inches thick.
3. 2 inch PVC pipe (schedule 40).
4. Pipe caps for the tops of the posts.
5. 1 inch galvanized screws to secure the beams to the posts.
6. 3 inch galvanized screws to assemble the beams.
7. 2 inch stainless steel machine screws (optional).
8. QuickCrete cement to set the posts underground.
9. A lot of ice cold Mountain Dew! It was in the high 90's when I took on this project.

My tools list:

1. A table top band saw to cut the PVC and foam sheets.
2. Electric drill.
3. Cordless drill for ease of use outside on the layout.
4. Various drill bits and a #2 Philips driver bit.
5. Post hole digger (hand powered in my case).
6. Shovel and wheel barrel to mix and work the cement.
7. Clamps to help hold my work together while I assembled the beams.
8. A giant homemade compass (big enough to make 10 foot diameters).
9. Full size radius lines on my garage floor to aid in assembly.

I bought my PVC sheeting from an industrial supplier I found in the Yellow Pages. The PVC can be bought in 4' x 8' sheets and various types of grades and thickness'. I bought the "Type 1" grade which was the cheapest and I had them cut the sheets in half for easy transport back home (2 x 8 foot sections). The rest of the materials were bought from the local Home Depot.

I used my table top band saw to cut the PVC sections into strips 2 7/8 of an inch wide by 8 feet long. I also used the band saw to cut the strait sections of the foam down into strips measuring 2 3/8 of an inch wide by 4 feet long (I cut across the width of the 4 x 8 foot foam sheets). The curved sections of the foam were marked on the foam sheets using my homemade compass then cut out with the band saw. A custom template was made from my switch footprints to cut the foam to the shape of a switch anyplace a switch would be located. Nothing special was needed for the PVC strips due to the fact that they were very easy to bend into any radius need.

Assembly of the beams was done in two different ways. The first was for the strait sections. All I did was put the PVC sheeting on either side of the cut foam, held it together with some clamps and screwed it together using the 3 inch galvanized screws (drilling small pilot holes helped quite a bit during assembly of the beams). I also made sure to keep a 2 3/8 inch space in the center and at each end of the beams so they would slip over the posts once outside on the layout. In this picture you can see a beam being assembled. Short posts were used to help align all the pieces before final assembly.

The second method was simply to use the curved foam sections and again, clamp the PVC strips around the foam making sure the radius was correct before screwing the beams together. To keep the radius correct during the assembly I followed radius lines drawn on my garage floor. You can see some of the lines on the floor in the picture above.

In my area of Michigan the frost line is about 42 inches down and being the type of person that needs to re-invent the wheel whenever possible, I opted to sink my posts below the frost line. So, I hand dug all the post holes spaced 4 feet apart 4 feet down. Each post was then test fit with the finished beams in place above ground (seen in the above picture) and cemented into place with half a bag of QuickCrete which is about 30 pounds. A water level was used to mark the tops of the posts to create an absolute zero percent grade and then cut down to their new height. Trenches were dug to make way for the beam sections and each section was leveled from side to side then secured to the posts with 1 inch galvanized screws. Note that I used 1 inch screws at this point to allow for ease in making leveling adjustments to either side of the beam in the future. The trenches were then back filled and low areas were brought up to meet the tops of the beams.

Below are a couple of pictures showing the almost finished roadbed (it just needs ballast). The picture on the left shows a beam after it's been painted to help protect the foam from the elements (mainly the sun). You should also note the post has a cap glued into the top. It serves to protect the post from filling with water and also as a way to secure the track to the roadbed. Stainless steel screws (optional) seen in the picture on the right hold the track down every 4 feet and still allows for movement caused by temperature changes. Oh ya, I almost forgot to point out the fact that the design of the beams gives you a nice little raceway to run your layouts wires in. I use mine for all the layouts wiring and airlines for DelAir switch controls. If any kind of work is needed on the wiring I can lift up the track, do the work, set the track back down re-ballast and I'm back in action. To me, that seems much nicer than digging up the layout.

Another neat fact about this system is moles can not disturb the bedding and I have plenty of them in my area. Let me know if you try this system out. I'm interested to hear if it works well for you or not. So far this system has held up for about 10 years of Michigan summers and winters.

Questions or problems regarding this web site should be directed to Jon Foster

Copyright © 1998, 2008 Jon Foster.  All rights reserved.
This site has been online since: Tuesday July 28, 1998 and was last modified: Monday February 25, 2008.