I have strayed here from my normal hangout on the Z Scale Forum as I need some information about the safe laying of 7.5 gauge track. First, the background information. I live in a small town in the South of England (that is Old England) where a proposal has been made to install a small railway as a tourist attraction. The train would have sit on carriages and carry fee paying passengers, mainly, but not exclusively young children. http://www.southhams.gov.uk/PlanningDocs/1/03/71/60/03716077.pdf It is proposed that the track be installed on an existing waterside promenade (or pavement or sidewalk) and that this area would be shared with the current pedestrian traffic. This existing promenade is tarmac laid over not very substantial foundations (the land was reclaimed from the adjoining estuary and was filled in during the 19th century). As such, this promenade is uneven and also has a small sideways slope. The proposal is simply to bolt the track to this existing tarmac without any proper track bed being laid. Is this feasible? I would have thought that this would have made the train ride very undulating with a possible risk of derailment, even at the low speeds which would be a requirement for such a venture. There is a 7.5 gauge railway in a town about 50 miles away and that has much more substantial track bed. http://www.pecorama.info/beer-heights-light-railway/ Rob Pearce (aka ViperBugloss)
By track, are you saying just the rails? Or the rails and ties ("Sleepers")? Hopefully the latter... I'd have doubts and worries. Liabilities and litigations being what they are these days. This seems to pose potential for derailments. Also, it sounds like it will be atop the surface, and you say pedestrians are there. Now you have a tripping hazard. This does not sound like a safe scenario.
First of all, I have to apologize as I have got my numbers wrong. The track gauge is 7 and 1/4 inches. (As I stated, I have strayed from the Z scale forum, so anything above 6.5 mm confuses me.) In the planning document there is a picture of a section of pre-fabricated track consisting of both rails and ties. It appears to be about one metre long and has five ties, one and each end and three spaced out in between. The track would be atop the tarmac and bolted to it. The picture shows the track section in its suggested location and in fact shows a park bench close by. To reach this bench would require stepping over the track so there is an immediate tripping hazard, especially as the benches are most likely to be used by the less agile. Also, the track is located quite close to the park bench and would have to be further out to avoid people seated. There is an open meeting about this proposal sometime next week, and I am trying to get some hard facts together before this meeting. At the moment, this proposal seems to be going forward on the basis of nostalgia and the woolly concept that it sounds like a good idea, without really asking questions about whether it is the feasible. Rob Pearce (aka ViperBugloss)
Another thing I'd wonder about is bolting it to tarmac. How would that track react to temperature extremes? This is another potential way to have a derailment.
