Colorado
Eastern - Dirt
Whoever invented the expression
"dirt-cheap" was a low-down dirty liar. Dirt is not cheap.
What you see in the photo to the right is about 4 tons of dirt, a ton of red granite boulder and
stone, 450#'s of specialty Utah sandstone, and two 75 pound sacks of
crusher fines
to be used as ballast. Cost as delivered, approximately $240.
You also see a wheelbarrow..... a small one. But I can report that
it works just great, as it was used to move every scrap of the pile out
to the layout site. I also borrowed a trusty Radio Flyer red wagon to
transport the boulders out to the layout site, and the photo below shows my stockpile
of stone at the framework before the dirt hauling began.
PROJECT DATE: 10/31/03
I did NOT plan for this, but it worked out just fine - the width of the
layout was exactly 2" wider than the wheelbarrow, so I was able to
push each load all the way into the layout and dump it. This repeated
travel helped compact each
layer with the delivery of the next load.
I then built my way up to the top of the framework, taking care to leave
room to bury the wires for the track.
Total cost-to-date: $465 + $240 = $705 |
big pile - small wheelbarrow
|
