Surveying the line and starting construction

I began by placing stakes every 10 feet after some bushwacking.  I tried to follow a path that was as level as possible.  You want to keep the grades to a minimum because it will greatly decrease how much of a load your engine can pull.  Ideally you want less then a 2% grade (a change of 2 feet in height over 100 feet of track.)  This is next to impossible to tell with the naked eye so you should use either a long level (would need stakes as close together as the level is long) or use a laser level.



I have some pretty good overgrowth to go through. I used a 100ft tape measuer to track out my path.



I threw some of the track panels I had built around where the line will go just to see what they'd look like.



Now comes the fun part.  This was the highest point of the line where I would be limited by large tree troots.  In this area I had to dig down as much as possible to minimize the grade to the low areas.  Once I got to tree roots I dug to that level and used the dirt from this cut to fill much of a near by low spot.  After tamping down the dirt to get it pretty level, I then put down a 24 inch wide section of weed blocking cloth.  I am using brick sized paver stones (29 cents a piece at the local big box store) to line the edge of the track path (got the idea from rideonrailways.com)  The bricks will help keep weeds and grass from encroaching on the line, helps limit the movement of the track, and also looks nice.  For the ballast I was initially using 3/4 gravel mix with fines.  I did this because it was cheap (about $150 bucks for a dumptruck full) but I didn't really care for the color.  I later found a landscape supply place that sold a variety of rocks.  I choose a 3/8 inch trap rock which cost $5 per 100 lbs.  I can load about five five gallon buckets of the stuff in my minivan each time I go into town.  Always be sure to use a rock with sharp edges for your ballast, the round river rock stuff won't hold your track in place well.