Old Dog, New Scale

[Anonymous]

Hello all. After spending 2 months clearing out overgrowth around my "island" of pine trees and adding stone border, landscaping fabric, and 7 yards of mulch, I have a nice 22' by 18' area. While sitting in our rocking bench, I said to my wife "you know, a train would look real good traveling around in there". Afer a one hour ride to the LHS, came back with Beginner's Guide To Large Scale Model Railroading book and June's Garden Railways. While there, fell in love with the USA Trains GP 38-2. Have a few questions. First, what would be the min. rad. for this loco? Second, as a lot of the pine tree roots are half exposed, and digging a trench for the track base is out of the question. Was thinking about driving metal or wood post down 4' (I live in upstate NY) and attaching roadbed to this. Does this sound like a good plan? If not, any suggestion. Just looking for a loop around with maybee a passing sideing. When I want to do switching moves, I will wander upstairs and operate my HO layout. Last, what kind of voltamp should I be looking for in a power pack?

[grandpopswalt]

Shoveopoly,

I'm involved with 1:24 scale narrow gauge so I don't know much about the 1:29 stuff. However, you should try to hook up with a regular forum member, OLD DAD. He uses a "floating" roadbed method, namely the structure that supports the track is not anchored to the ground. He lives in MN. where it probably gets even colder than upstate NY and his layout has survived about 10 winters.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Grandpopswalt

[toenailridgesl]

Hi from Oz, my name is Phil You didn't give one so I'll just say G''day bloke!
Count on a minimum radius of 4ft, the loco will probably squeal around tighter but the bigger the radius you plan now the less unhappy you'll be further down the track. The current trend in new release locos is for bigger and bigger radii, you might find in a couple of years that the loco you really lust after just won't make it around your curves so go as big as possible as early as possible.
Common voltages and amperages are 18-24volts, up to 10 amps power supply. Just about all common LS locos will run on 12 volt but you need to have some in reserve and since you have to spend the initial $$$ anyway, go for a reasonable size power pack from the start.
Just about all LS locos are happy on 1-2amps but long trains, grades or multiple running demand more juice so plan ahead.
Huge amount of info re roadbed and the various options available are at http://www.mylargescale.com ,also a specific Beginner's Forum where a huge amount of info is available. Our motto on MLS is "There are no dumb questions..."
As far as track base and roadbed info goes the best thing a newbie can do is visit the local club, the local members have "been there, done that" in your area and know what works. List of GR clubs in the back of Garden Railways mag every issue.
Hope this info is of some help.
Feel free to pose more questions, also surf the excellent variety of LS websites for more info and inspiration

[Anonymous]

[#welcome]

shoveopoly, I'm not really qualified in terms of my knowledge( lack of hands on experence) but as toenail said the trend is for larger raduis turns. There was a thread posted about forcing consumers to use 10 ft radius turns by releasing
particular loco's that require them. Don't get discouraged about the lack of replies, weekends around here are a little slow due to good weather and everyone is outside doing some Garden Railroading. I beleive you will recieve more answers to you questions come monday.

[Anonymous]

shoveopoly, Go to the FYI thread on this forum and click on "spline roadbed". This is a roadbed system that can "float" over your tree roots with no need to dig any holes for support posts. This system also forms easments and curves in a graceful free flowing manner....no street car curves.

Using the largest radius that you can is good sound advice. Also, allow plenty of side and top clearence since the rolling stock can be very long and high.

OLD DAD

[bryanfarris]

OLD DAD,

What material did you use for your spline roadbed?
Was it the material described in the article? Cause I can not find anyone local who carries this material.
Was wondering if you used another material like pressure treated 2X4's maybe?

Bryan

[Anonymous]

Bryan, the material Old Dad used is called Trex, It is a Man made decking material. I personsonally have only seen at a lumber yard and not a home depot or lowes kind of place. Try their web site to see if there is a supplier near you.

www.trex.com

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your help. By the way, my name is Gary. The spline roadbed method looks like it will work for me. Guess I got lucky, 2 Trex dealers not far from me.

[bman36]

Hi Gary,
Welcome to the forum! Lots of great info and people here. Hope you enjoy it. Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

Hi Gary,
Welcome to the forum. Know what you mean about that 38-2, I saw it in my local model shop a few weeks ago and bought it. It runs fine on 8' diameter but would look better on 10' or larger. How about throwing some gravel down over them roots, between bricks/stone to get a rough roadbed and go for it, at least you'll be running that 38-2.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]