G scale garden railroad?

First off, I'm new here so hello to the newsgroup!

I recently acquired a nifty Buddy L "limited edition" G scale set which I would like to use as the beginnings of a garden railroad. I have a few questions about this...

  1. Most if not all of the extra track I've looked at is brass. How bad is that for corrosion when used outdoors? How difficult is it to keep it clean?

  1. The track that came with the set appears to be steel and/or chrome, but it looks like it's compatible with the brass tracks. Does anyone know if this steel track can be used outdoors? There's nothing in the kit about this one way or another.

  2. I'd like to have some tunnels. Not real long, but not real short either. My concern here is accessibility for maintenance, cleaning, etc. Any thoughts or suggestions?

  1. What scale should I use when building structures to go with this kit?

  2. Is there any vital piece of info I should know about building and maintaining an outdoor railroad?

That's about all for now. Any help will be appreciated. TIA!

Oh, and Merry Christmas everyone!

-- Ray V

Reply to
raydunakin
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The brass rail will quickly oxidize to a dull brown color. Unlike my experience with HO brass rail, I find the G gauge oxidized brass rail (I use a combination of LGB and Aristocraft) does not interfere with the operation of my trains. I have found the oxide and dirt crried by rain doe interfere with conductivity through the manufacturer's slip-on fishplates, so that I have shifted to the use of the bolted rail clamps. I made a track cleaning car oust of a piece of plexiglass mounted on two trucks with a weighted, floating Masonite pad that rubs on the rail heads and is guided by two vertical nails passing loosely through holes in the plexiglass. The rough side of the Masonite cleans the rails sufficiently if it's been les than a week or so sine last operating. If it's been longer, I add a folded paper towel spritzed with 409 to the pad for a couple loops of the layout, then make a couple more loops with just the Masonite. The 409 helps get up the black crud that collects on the rail after rains and under trees.

I got one old Bachmann set with track that was just inverted "U" shapped sheet metal over a plastic rail form cast on the tie strip. I did not feel this was sturdy enough to use outside, and was not compatible with the rail clamps I use. It looked to me like the metal was not stainless steel, so that the bright plating would soon wear off and rust the steel.

I don't have any tunnels, so can't help, save that other outdoor layouts I've visited often have doors to keep critters frm making homes in the idle tunnels.

Scale is difficult in G gauge - it varies from 1:32 for correctly sized standard gauge (No. 1 scale), 1:29 for standard gauge prototype trains by Aristocraft and others, 1:24 for narrow gauge prototype trains by Bachmann and others (it works out that 1:29 models of standard gauge prototypes and

1:24 models of US 3 foot gauge prototypes as about the same physical size and thus look very reasonable when combined in a train), 1:22.5 for LGB models of European meter gauge prototypes, and 1:20.3 for correctly scaled models of US 3 foot gauge prototype trains. I'm not familiar with your 2-6-2 but it looks to be a model of a standard gauge prototype and is probably near 1:29 proportion. In spite of this, I'd recommend using 1:24 for any structured you build, both because 1/2" to the foot will be easy to use ib making measurements, and because many commercially available G gauge structures are in about that scale, should you ever add some to your RR.

Mount the track securely. The magazines describe elaborate concrete sub-roadbed designs, but I have found using pressure treated 2x4 buried level with the ground to be practical. Do allow for thermal expansion of the rail. Make provision for water drainage.

Good luck and have fun!! Geezer

Reply to
Geezer

Thanks for the tips!

Had a couple of my grand-daughters over today, ages 4 and 6. Even with nothing more than a simple oval, they got a kick out of the new train, taking turns running it and giving rides to their dolls.

That should make it a little easier to convince my wife to let me make major changes to the yard in order to build a decent layout. :)

Reply to
raydunakin

Better to use the thought of her having to do less yard work due to the space used by the railroad and of course you doing yard work to keep up the railroad.

Tim.

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Reply to
Timothy Lange

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