How tough is 00 gauge track?

In message , Joe writes

Use nickel silver track. It doesn't rust, but it does get a dirty patina on the surface which prevents electrical contact and which needs cleaning off. I clean my track before every running session except it doesn't need much cleaning if you were running the previous day.

Like other metals it expands and contracts. The best time to lay the track is at midday today, allowing no expansion gaps whatever! At all other times you should make allowance for future expansion. Do not forget that temperatures quoted on the weather forecast are those in the shade inside a Stevenson box, so I expect the track on my layout to get up to 50 degrees or more in the height of summer.

My track is pinned to the baseboard, so if I got it wrong when laying I can easily relay it with larger expansion gaps. If you consider that your expansion gaps are getting excessive, you can always cut the track lengths in half in order to use smaller gaps but more of them.

Yes. And you can run when it's raining.

Why would your track get flooded?

In message , Keith Norgrove writes

Well, my first scenery project happened in 1959 or thereabouts.

A wee correction - coal mines have "waste" tips, steelworks and the like have "slag" heaps :)

Thers no slag in a coal mine!

Dave

Except the one serving tea in the canteen.

-- Cheers Roger T.

And the most infamous 'slag heap' of them all:

Governor of Waldovia

In message , speedy2 writes

Don't tell me, tell the whole population of South Wales, who refer to them as slag heaps.

It is also a good idea to use the PECO sliding expansion joints. They are sold to be purely decorative, but actually fulfil their intended purpose well (the two halves of each rail need wiring together, obviously).

I'm thinking of building one also. I've been told to avoid the concrete effect sleepers as they go brittle in UV light.