I agree with Ton.

The Peco track is very good, and properly weathered and ballasted, really looks the part.

Additionally, I agree that the turnouts have a very negative 'contact', relying only upon the small area of contact between the point blades and the adjoining rail web surfaces. These requires regular cleaning, to ensure good current flow. (It's a pity that Peco didn't adopt the additional 90 degree 'finger' contact point, as is used in their very reliable HO / OO turnouts.) Ton's solution seems quite good.

Apart from these small points (pun intended!) the Peco product fills the bill admirably!


John

I purchased a couple of bags of those Rail King figures about 5 years back.

They are quite good, and they will fit easily into On30 sized carriages. Each figure measures out at about 4' 6" standing, so they are only useful for populating our rolling stock, rather than mixing in with other O scale figures. About 60% of them are seated, the remainder are standing: male and female.

Yes please!!

A 3-truck Shay sounds wonderful!!

(I have a couple of the old Roundhouse (?) units in HO scale, but a nice big, clanking one in On30 would suit me down to the ground. I'm not very taken with that spindly T-boiler thing that they produced some years back....)



John

Good one, Fred!

Great costumes, great scenery, good sound.....and...

Little Narrow Gauge Steam locomotives, 'waddling' down the track........


John

I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be possible.

It is true, that most garden layouts are especially reserved for the larger scales, but there would be no reason that running "HO-gauged" track outside wouldn't be OK.

You would have to take the obvious things like climate, protection from garden litter, leaves and etc., into consideration, as well as providing protection from the elements for the locomotives and rolling stock. If you have a small garden shed that you can run the track into, that should suffice for storage when not running the trains.

One plus with outdoor layouts is that in most cases, you would not have to be concerned with sharp radii on your curves, as you can have them as broad as you wish.

The choice of track may be of concern. The old-schoolers from the 1950s and 60s used to employ brass-railed track, to offset the problems of rust, but today's nickle-silver may be all right....but whatever track you choose, it will still have to be dried and cleaned very regularly. More so than indoor layout trackage.

Of course, if you opt to go for the 'dead-rail' alternative, track cleaning is not so much of an issue......but you still have to keep the leaves, twigs, birds, dogs and cats away!

I have only had a small amount of experience with outdoor layouts, and that was in O scale, and many decades back.

Good luck!

What a blast!!   


Those locomotives look like Davenports, too....



John

Very cool, indeed!

I really like the bloke, lifting up the side-hinged bonnet (hood) on the old Merc Truck, and the 'steam' coming out....



John

Another pair of nice ones, Fred.

The Lynton & Barnstaple Baldwin 'Lyn' was superb, in my opinion.

Loved the realistic steam whistles.....



John

Pretty cool, Fred.

Narrow gauge, overgrown track, decrepit Diesels, and rattling Hoppers. All great stuff!

I couldn't identify what was being loaded / unloaded from the hoppers........any ideas?



John

Have you tried applying power straight from the controller / power source directly to the driving wheels of your locomotive?

Just take the two wires that lead to the track, and with the speed control switched on, hold one of each on either side of the driving wheels  of the inverted locomotive. If the wheels don't turn, there is a problem with the power pick up shoes, or the internal wiring inside the locomotive.

Hope this helps.


John

Fascinating stuff indeed, Fred...

Amazing (hand-cranked) footage from the land of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri,  and Anubis....

Thank you for sharing.



John

The cattle and geese don't appear to be too fazed about all the hissing activity around them!


Good one, Fred!

Hey, that was great, Fred!

Loved the little Diesel Electric locomotive, and the (almost) 100% grade cable tramway, moving the marble blocks.

The forests and mountains of the Tyrol region are also spectacular!

Can't seem to get the link to open anything but a blank Bachmann Trains page, Fred.....

The close proximity of the overhead power cable for the electric locomotives must have been a constant worry for the operators and miners, as it appears to be somewhat less than a standing man's head height....

<ZAP>





John