Welcome back! We’re welcoming Spring with new springers, er… stringers. To celebrate the first day of Spring, we got out in the Barkyard to begin the annual stringer replacements. Well, technically it’s the second day of Spring, but close enough. We never expected this to become an annual event, but that’s what it is now.
Learning the hard way that modern wood products just don’t stand the test of time out in the elements. Not even when heavily treated to do so. Those wood stringers offer a sturdy base for our track and elevate much of our rail above ground. Inevitably those wooden stringers rot. Last fall, we decided to try using PVC to replace a few rotted sections.
There are advantages to using PVC trim over pressure treated (PT) lumber. First is reduction of effort and waste. To construct wooden stringers, we rip a 2x4x8′ stud into not quite a dozen ¼”x1½”x8′ slats. It’s labor intensive considering the time spent at the table saw and it’s wasteful as each rip turns ⅛”x1½”x8′ into sawdust. That’s one third of the raw material converted directly to waste!
Another advantage of PVC stringers is ease of assembly. Each side of the stringer is now a single ⅝”x1½”x8′ PVC trim piece, not three slats that all need trimmed to different lengths when using the curve templates. I built those templates to help ease assembly, wrangling all six slats and a dozen spacer blocks into some semblance of order.
Let’s Do This The Easy Way
Now it’s just a single pass with a pair of the PVC 1x2s, drill and screw each to the spacer blocks, then trim either end and done. It still takes about an hour to assemble an 8′ section of stringer, but it saves about another hour of ripping a 2×4 into slats, not to mention the countless hours of removing rotted sections and replacing them every year.
Speaking of those jigs, they’re not really necessary when using PVC. Assuming the posts are arranged in the desired pattern, circular or otherwise, just attach the spacer blocks to one side then fasten that in place along those posts. Attaching the remaining side is easy enough using clamps to hold it in place while fastening it to the first side and posts.
So far we’ve used the 14′ and 20′ curve jig. The 10′ diameter curves could be a different story. We skidded the shed out from the fence another 8″ a while back with the hope of fitting larger curves to replace those tight 10′ diameter sections. They were enough to get us up and running originally, but now we have flex track and a rail bender to fit any size curve.
Getting A Head Start
Every year there’s a push to get trains running again. This year we’re starting earlier than most, in the past usually waiting until May to get trains running by Memorial Day. Some years that even stretched to July 4th. And every year it’s the same thing. Replace the rotted wooden stringers. As we said, it’s become an annual event.
Those concrete roadbed “bricks” we’re experimenting with work, but are much more labor intensive than posts and stringers, and nowhere near as sturdy and immoveable as we thought they’d be. Still working on how to streamline that process… Comparing the ease of replacing the rotted wooden stringers with PVC ones with the amount of effort using concrete bricks, it’s a no brainer!
So far we’ve replaced about 100′ of stringers, both straight and curved sections, but we’ve also taken up more than 300′ of track where the stringers had already rotted out over the past year or so and no longer held the track. We’re still behind the curve for getting trains running by Memorial Day, but we’re working hard to make that happen.
Just Enough
The plan is to replace just enough track to have a continuous loop trains can run on. This would consist of the downtown loop, that North leg of the wye loops around through downtown along the mainline back to the elevated sections. The elevated sections need bridges in place to run trains past the deck and back to downtown.
The lower loop around the deck and the other legs of the wye will have to wait. Essentially the mainline Downtown connects to the wye switch (West). The diverging legs of the wye arrangement go left (South) to the deck and right (North) to the downtown loop. The only thing missing to make it an operational wye is a switch connecting the North leg to the straight leg to the West.
But a standard switch doesn’t fit. When I first laid out that downtown wye section, I thought the Aristo-craft wye switch replaced a full 20′ curved segment of track. I found out the hard way it didn’t. Trying to fit those 14′ diameter curves to the diverging routes of the wye switch didn’t work as planned.
The angles were off just enough that it didn’t fit without having to resort to flex track and bending a tighter radius to make it fit. Without the wye switch in place, the 14′ diameter segments fit just fine. It may be better to redo that section to make it fit right while we already have it apart and all torn up anyway. We shall see…
Making Progress
Amazing what was accomplished in a single weekend. All of the elevated sections are in place and painted with the track repaired and installed. That was easy compared to what’s next. The ground level sections, starting with the mainline and siding switches to the station siding. And there’s a reason for starting there.
Because of the “hiccup” with the wye switch not quite aligning with the diverging legs of the wye, that becomes the most important location on the layout. Everything has to be measured against and fit to that point. Why? Because the station siding just fits using 10′ diameter curves and the two wide radius switches. And that has to be the starting point for the wye switch.
Another consideration is the height of the mainline crossing Main Street into Downtown. The original track height is too tall by about the thickness of a concrete block cap, roughly 1⅝”. The quick and dirty way around that in the past was to just line Main Street with concrete block caps, simulating curbing, sidewalks and building foundations.
It’s A Dirty Job…
Time to start digging out what remains of the rotted mainline and siding stringers. I need someplace to put all the dirt and gravel while test fitting the yet to be assembled replacements, but somehow I’ve managed to use all the five gallons buckets for something else.
A number of unused 16qt storage bins with lids are sitting in the garage, so they’re pressed into service. Fitting the new replacements fills two of them! I hadn’t planned on fixing anything more than the station siding, but as the digging exposes more and more of what remains of the other siding, the danger of exposed screws is apparent. Better fix it all while we’re in here.
Those 10′ diameter stringers have always been right at the edge of being too tight of a curve for any material, wanting to spring back to their original straight shape when removed from the jig. Thankfully we only need two sections (~60°), not an entire quarter circle (90°). It’s still straining to maintain its shape against the posts, and the screws are pulling out of the twisting spacers.
Repairing The Track
About as common as replacing rotted stringers is having to repair the track. It seems that just looking at the track wrong will cause the rail to pull out of the simulated tie plates and spikes. Now consider three good sized German Shepherd “pups” constantly pounding on them. Add to that constant UV bombardment from our hot Florida sun baking them brittle and prone to breakage.
Just about every piece of track needs disassembled and the tie strips “reseated” over the foot of the rails before the track can be put back in place. Anyone who’s ever dealt with those annoying little Aristo-craft screws knows what a pain they are. My big hammy hands make it even more difficult, inevitably losing some of those fumbly screws in the process.
In the past I’ve tried to patiently coax the ties back around the foot of the rail using tiny screwdrivers and other tools with limited success. What usually ends up happening is the another tie gets pushed off the rail while struggling to hold it in place and fix the first tie. Anyone that knows me knows what little patience I have doesn’t last long with fiddly things like that.
Relaying The Track
Anyway, each track section is laid back in its place as it’s repaired. SplitJaw™ rail clamps are then installed to connect it to the previous section. Learning from past mistakes, when securing a single tie with a screw to the stringer beneath, either the screw pulls through the tie or the tie gets ripped free from the rail, now uselessly still mounted to the stringer.
We recently switched to using zip ties every so often to hold several ties to an joiner block of the underlying stringer. It’s much more forgiving using this method. The track usually has enough give that it simply shifts to the side when absorbing impacts. That’s not to say that the track can’t still be damaged, but it certainly takes a lot more effort to do so.
Pulling the zip tie too tight is a quick way to cause damage. The most difficult part is placing those zip ties when the stringers rest directly on the ground. It’s a struggle to feed them down through the ties, underneath the spacer block and then back up through the ties to secure them. But at least now the mainline and siding tracks are fully restored and in place.
What The Future Holds
Another weekend, another part of the Barkyard restored. The next big win would be to get the rest of the ground level track in place, including the rest of the wye. That’s most likely a future thing though. As it stands, the wye really isn’t a fully functional wye arrangement. The downtown loop doesn’t have the option of returning to downtown and looping back to the elevated sections.
It’s only connected to the straight leg of the wye using a 20′ diameter track section in place of the 14′ diameter section. That straight leg does have a switch at the other end, allowing trains to run along the lower loop around the deck and then along the South leg of the wye back to downtown and the mainline heading East.
What we need is a 14’/20′ diameter curved switch to connect the straight leg to the other leg of the wye. It’s not clear in those screen captures though. They don’t make 14’/20′ diameter curved switches. At least not that I’m aware of. There’s not enough room for anything else to fit. I’ve designed myself into a corner.
Spoilers
Back to the drawing board! Years ago I had started designing a home made #5 switch to connect a diverging 14′ diameter route with a 3′ long tangent route. I think I originally had the downtown wye in mind. I’ve put all the details in this post dedicated to the new switch design.
There’s a new discovery in there as well. One that could have MAJOR impact on Downtown! Let’s just say I can’t wait for my new 3D printer to get here! It’s due to arrive in the mid April timeframe. I ordered it back in November of last year (2025). Think of it as “next generation” printer technology compared to my other “first generation” technology printers, where everything is manual.
I’m looking forward to not have to manually swap spools of filament mid print while crossing my fingers that something doesn’t screw up. This new one can handle four different colors in one print. The printer actually supports up to 16 colors at once, but I opted for just the four in a single ACE cabinet to begin with. Not sure where I would put the other three ACE cabinets anyway.
For A Limited Time Only
I had been gathering the footage of the progress from the surveillance cameras, thinking they could be spliced together into a sort of time lapse montage. But then I missed the window to grab the footage from last weekend. I’m surprised by this since I’ve been able to go back more than a week in the past. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t able to.
Oh well, I’m down to my last 3GB on a 4TB drive, not sure where I would have put it anyway! I was waiting for the 8TB NVME drive prices to come down, but with AI and all the global upending lately, that ain’t happening. It’s DOUBLE what it was last year! They want $200 more for the 4TB drive I already have! Also nearly double! And they want more AI and more data centers?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not Grandpa Simpson shouting at the clouds. I’ve used AI in increasing capacities at work since before the Large Language Models (LLMs) emerged. AI has its uses, but it’s not the panacea it’s made out to be. It’s wrong more often than it’s right. And when it’s wrong, it still takes a human to detect those mistakes and retrain it to reduce their frequency.
At some point those rough cut videos will reappear, but not right now. We’re making too much progress toward getting trains running again.
Question? Concerns? Leave A Comment!
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to comment on this post. In any case, you’ll need to create a user account to do so. We don’t use any personal information for marketing or to spam you (see our privacy policy). We do it this way to avoid scammers spamming our posts. You’ll receive a verification email. Reply to the link provided to verify your email address. It’s all automatic. No waiting on moderator approval! No spamming your inbox with useless advertisements and “Special Offers”. None of that nonsense.
More to come. Stay tuned for Part II!
