Got sand bags?

[The Heretic]

Railroad tie flower beds make for good defensive positions.

I have logs I that could be stacked, but not the equipment to move and stack them.

 

[Pete F]

I have logs I that could be stacked, but not the equipment to move and stack them.

The nice thing about railroad ties are longevity, density and uniform depth/width. I use them for retaining walls, there is very little flat land on my 3/4 acre parcel. I doubt that any (normal) round except maybe a .50 caliber could get through a box made with two layers of ties filled with dirt. It would be fun to try though.

 

[Pete F]

@Pete F Been meaning to ask you about your avatar pic... Is that a top view of nuke cylinders in a water bath and Cherenkov radiation?

@sobo Close. View from the polar crane of the Trojan Nuclear Plant reactor core partially unloaded. Indeed it is Cherenkov radiation. Not many can name that tune.

I am in the lower left hand corner in the yellow suit. I think that I cropped it off the Avitar, but was there when they turned off the lights in containment to take the pictures. I had to scan it from an actual photo.

 

[sobo]

Thanks!
Got to see Cherenkov radiation at the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility bath at Hanford's B Plant when I worked out there for a few years as a consultant.
Pretty cool sh!t when they turn all the lights off.

 

[Pete F]

Got to see Cherenkov radiation at the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility bath at Hanford's B Plant when I worked out there for a few years as a consultant.

15 years as a Radiation Protection Specialist/Nuclear Engineer from Bremerton Naval Shipyard to much of the US and finally Trojan as a regular employee after years of contracting - then they shut it down after two years. Boy was I pizzed. Moved on to Environmental Science.

 

[aknate]

Your going to break your timbers with all the 50lb sandbags.

 

[E4mafia]

If you've got the money and assets look into HESCO barriers.

Home

We develop and provide protective solutions for a range of sectors, providing advice and onsite training to protect workforces and properties worldwide.

www.hesco.com

simple as setting it up then dumping natural earth into it with a loader.

Sand bags you can use natural dirt as well in lieu of sand. Like you point out tho it can be tricky depending on terrain/material.


We would normally put hundreds of bags around concrete barriers we used as rocket bunkers mostly to stop shrapnel, never had a direct lay but i'd imagine it'd only mitigate not out right stop rockets etc.
For stopping small arms fire it'd be fine as long as you put in a good couple layers and make sure the bags are set firmly.

 

[Flymph]

The only true benefit I could see is if you are vulnerable to runoff from storms, otherwise a steel plate would be a lot easier for defense purposes... you could even put it on rollers with kick stands to stabilize.

 

[The Heretic]

The nice thing about railroad ties are longevity, density and uniform depth/width. I use them for retaining walls, there is very little flat land on my 3/4 acre parcel. I doubt that any (normal) round except maybe a .50 caliber could get through a box made with two layers of ties filled with dirt. It would be fun to try though.

Previous owner used them near the house, about two high. Twenty years old, on a mountain where mold and moss grows on everything, including the paved driveway, and they are rotting - a .223 would go right thru these. Also, they are soaked with creosote so not good for the plants. I want to replace them with boulders, but probably won't get around to it before I sell and move.

 

[MannyGlocks]

What?

No alligator filled moat?

Amateurs...

 

[The Heretic]

Thank you mod for fixing the title

 

[The Heretic]

What?

No alligator filled moat?

Amateurs...

I have

 

[Pete F]

Previous owner used them near the house, about two high. Twenty years old, on a mountain where mold and moss grows on everything, including the paved driveway, and they are rotting - a .223 would go right thru these. Also, they are soaked with creosote so not good for the plants. I want to replace them with boulders, but probably won't get around to it before I sell and move.

I have never tried making flower beds out of Railroad ties, so if flowers suffer you could always line the inside, or fill the inside with gravel and use flower pots.

The railroad ties that I bought were grade #1 and #2, slightly used. Some of them were so heavy it took two big guys to move them. The retaining walls are holding up nicely after around 25 years, up to four high reinforced with steel posts and round gravel used on the inside for drainage. I do check them once in a while since the main one is protecting my shop.

My other retaining walls are made of those large concrete blocks that lock together. The seams make them unsuitable for stopping incoming rounds.

 

[The Heretic]

Concrete blocks that you can pour concrete into and tie together with rebar are much better at stopping projectiles than just stacked blocks. The typical stacked concrete block that is hollow will disintegrate after about 5-10 rounds.

 

[Pete F]

Concrete blocks that you can pour concrete into and tie together with rebar are much better at stopping projectiles than just stacked blocks. The typical stacked concrete block that is hollow will disintegrate after about 5-10 rounds.

These 6"x"16 solid.

 

[The Heretic]

 

[gatmandoo]

15 years as a Radiation Protection Specialist/Nuclear Engineer from Bremerton Naval Shipyard to much of the US and finally Trojan as a regular employee after years of contracting - then they shut it down after two years. Boy was I pizzed. Moved on to Environmental Science.

I have a question for you Pete. Some of my family are from St. Helens and as a kid, probably around 1982, some cousins and I swam in the cooling ponds near the shut down trojan plant. Was that safe or should I be expecting some horrible form of cancer from it? I've had no problems so far luckily!

 

[sobo]

It's cooling water. Not in contact with radioactive elements. Even if it did, residence time, half-lives, and all that sh!t would have that stuff being perfectly safe in minutes.
You'll be fine, trust me. No, really! Trust me...

Question: Have you had any kids? Are they what you would consider "normal"?

 

[gatmandoo]

It's cooling water. Not in contact with radioactive elements. You'll be fine, trust me. No, really! Trust me...

Thanks man! It's just something I have always wondered/worried about since I have zero knowledge about that kind of stuff.

 

[slimmer13]

I have a question for you Pete. Some of my family are from St. Helens and as a kid, probably around 1982, some cousins and I swam in the cooling ponds near the shut down trojan plant. Was that safe or should I be expecting some horrible form of cancer from it? I've had no problems so far luckily!

It's been proven to cause stunted penile growth.