I laid out the curved sections on the ground and connected the sections. I also drilled some half-inch holes in some of the ties and drove a length of rebar through the holes into the ground to keep the track from shifting out of position.

Since it would be a constant battle to keep the grass and weeds from taking over the track, I killed the grass along the track bed and rolled out some grass mat to prevent the grass from growing back.  I’m hoping this will be enough to keep the grass and weeds from covering the track.  Later I’ll cover the black cloth with either gravel or maybe some mulch to give the appearance of track ballast and to hide the mat.

When I ran a test of the engine to see if it would follow the track without derailing, here’s how the test went: