I live in Houston Texas. We get the full range of weather, everything from
110 degrees and bone dry in the summer to lows of aprox. high 20's in the
winter. Then add in that at any time you can throw in incredible down pours
of rain. But, for the most part it is HOT and HUMID for most of the year. I
built my track like most, 4x4's set in concrete deck supports, 3/4"
plywood, 2x4's on top of the 4x4's to support the plywood, and then added
2x4's on there edge under the plywood screwed in to keep the plywood from
bowing. All of this was treated wood and worked well, until we get to the
top weather proofing. I first used Sears best exterior deck paint (six
coats, and I'm not exaggerating) and within 5 to six months of the extreme
heat and moisture it was cracking and peeling. I tried painting over the
cracks and peels with more deck paint laid down even thicker and this time
it cracked and peeled worse. I started to think long and hard about what
would work and had a friend that had just had the bed of his pick up
sprayed with a bed liner. To make a already to long story short, I belt
sanded all the deck paint off and had them come spray my track with truck
bed liner. it has been on for over a year and has held up incredible. I
also like the fact that it is thick enough to fill in all spaces between
were plywood joins and covered screw holes and has made the track
weatherproof. I have since heard that many companies offer these products
in forms that can be rolled on by hand, thus saving you the price of having
it sprayed on. Good luck.
Steve
At 10:51 PM 12/30/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>Has anyone done a survey of alternate construction techniques and
>materials for an elevated live steam track? I'm doing the planning for
>one of my own and would like to learn from other's experiences.
>
>In recent visits to steam ups I've seen the following variations:
>
>Uprights:
> a. Steel pipe,
> b. 4x4 wood posts,
> c. plastic water pipe
>
>Height adjustment:
> a. Telescoping steel pipe with drilled bolt locations,
> b. wooden shims between posts on top,
> c. threaded plastic pipe fittings
>
>Stringers between posts:
> a. Bender board (garden border wood strips),
> b. redwood or fir1x4's,
> c. rolled aluminum 1x2's
>
>Top:
> a. 3/4" Plywood,
> b. 1x1 crosswise strips of redwood fastened to stringers
>
>Weather protection:
> a. Roofing material,
> b. polyurethane sealant on the plywood (or whatever magic stuff
>Jon Bloom put on his track)
> c. redwood
>
>I haven't seen any articles in SitG or GRwy discussing this topic. Lots
>of info on ground level electric GRwys but nothing on elevated live
>steam RRs.
>
>It seems to me that figures-of-merit of the various techniques are:
>
>1. Stability: Track stays levels and unwarped in spite of temperature,
>humidity, aging
>
>2. Ease of construction
>
>3. Cost
>
>4. Ease of modification - height adjustment to deal with settling and
>warping and also ease of adding sidings, additional loops
>
>Thanks for any ideas and opinions
>
