Sleepers and Roadbed
First a quick introduction, I'm Chris, I'm from the northern part of Ohio in the US, and I'm new around here although I have been reading your forum for quite some time. I have a z scale layout under construction with a general German (read toy like) theme and am planning a Bavarian layout in 1 Gauge. I'm hoping someone might know something about sleepers and roadbed in Bavaria, Ep. I, around the turn of the century. Specifically, the dimensions an spacing of the sleepers/ties. I'm going to hand lay the track so I might as well get that detail right. Also, did they use elevated roadbeds at that time? The few period pictures I've seen of stations do not have elevated roadbed. The track appears to be laid at ground level. Was this true of the whole line or just station areas? Thanks for your help. Chris

Christopher, The Länderbahn Forum http://www.lbforum.com/index.html has developed prototypical Bavarian track in H0 scale and that site (and the discussion forum) may give you an idea of how it looked. There have also been articles in the German magazine press focussing on Bavarian branch line modelling, as well as photos of Bavarian stations in two of the Bayern-Report series. My impression is that trackage in stations was often at ground level, but not necessarily so on the open line.

Thank you both Tim and Paul. It sounds like my presumption was correct, the track works would have been light and laid on only a slightly raised roadbed or ground level. Early branchlines and narrow gauge developed much the same way here (in the US) in the late 19th C. Chris

Just a weird question from an old roadways man: After clearing the right of way, would they have compacted/compressed the ground under the track prior to laying the sleepers? Or was that an expensive extra step not required by the light axle loads? :? Thanks in advance, Jim