A garden railway with an integrated tunnel attracts everyone's attention. You can easily build such a tunnel yourself.
A model railway making its rounds through the garden is a real eye-catcher. Lavishly planned and designed routes are particularly beautiful to look at. A tunnel should not be missing for many friends of the garden railway. Of course, such tunnels are commercially available (for example, here at Amazon). But you can also easily build such a tunnel yourself. All you need is a plant rock, soil and some plants to make the tunnel look more natural.
Step 1: Select plant stones
Different plant stones (e.g. rectangular, round, etc.) made of red or gray concrete are now available in specialist shops (hardware store or garden center) and are extremely inexpensive. The only important thing is to select a suitable size for the garden railway used in each case, so that it can later pass through the plant stone opening unhindered. Of course, the height and width of the track rails must always be taken into account for the height and width dimensions.
Step 2 - place plant stones
The planting stones are set directly within the existing track layout. You can of course determine the length of a tunnel individually, depending on your taste buds. Incidentally, tunnel curves are easier to build with round plant stones.
You have to briefly interrupt the track layout so that you can place the planting stones. To do this, dismantle the tracks at the intended location. Then you either put the plant stones directly into the ground or you even concrete them in the base area, which significantly increases the stability of the tunnel. After the concrete has dried, the track rails can be used directly inside the newly constructed tunnel and reconnected to the rest of the rail system.
Tip: When you set the plant stones, you must ensure that the track guide is not affected by unevenness. Therefore, place the plant stones in such a way that a level rail guide is guaranteed. In an emergency, you can also use the tracks before and afterlightly underpin the tunnel with pebbles or similar to level out any unevenness.
Step 3 - planting stones
A garden railway tunnel looks much more real if it is also planted. To do this, plenty of earth must be poured onto the outside of the planting stones and secured - e.g. by watering the individual layers well. The tunnel can then be planted with moss or grass seed without any problems. Small natural stones can also be placed on top, which visually help to represent a kind of mountain tunnel.