A newbie here, to the hobby and railway design, with a few questions

[Anonymous]

I want to design and build an "O" guage RR around the perimeter of my garage, which is a total distance of approximately 200 feet.  Can anybody recommend a train set?  Will I need more than a normal power supply for that distance?  Can I incorporate any incline in the track, say maybe 20 degrees up or so?  Lastly, other than ebay, where would be an appropriate retailer to obtain the set, extra track, etc?

Thanks in advance.

Jack

[cabbage]

Well as it happens most large scale "O" gauge equipment is normally scratch built. The very english 16mm scale is the one preffered AKA SM32. This gives you a 2 foot narrow gauge system, well suited to industrial, quarry, forestry and colonial railways. A 20 degree slope is far too steep -most model systems are capable of 4 degrees as a maximum.

At this cale you can have battery electric locos and live steam.

If you are contemplating steep slopes then an articulated battery electric would be the way to go. A simple speed controller and a lead acid gel cell would be all you would need. I build models at this scale and I really do like it -my locos vary in length from 30cm to 118cm long.

Click the home page icon at the bottom and have a wander around the webring. I am sorry you will find most of the sites very English -but there are ones in Japan, France and a cellar in California!

Do not hesitate to ask questions -that is what we are here for.

regards

ralph

[Tom The Brat]

Nice to meet you, Breezy! Welcome to Garden Railroading.

Well....

You probably want G (or #1) instead of 0 gauge.

20 degree grade We usually talk about the grade in %. A 1% grade rises one inch in a hundred, one cm in a hundred or one furlong in a hundred. If you keep to 1% or less, you have a very nice, flat, mainline. 2% is quite reasonable. 5% is getting mighty steep and you wouldn't see that except on a logging line. 20 degrees is about 36% grade

The size of your power supply has to do with how much loco you're running, not how long your track is.

Since you're thinking about going around your garage, you probably want a radio control so you can follow your train around the garage. The Aristo Trackside TE might be nice. Of course, battery power and radio control will reduce track cleaning to removing debris.

My suggestion would be to follow the forum for a while and see what others are doing, then decide what you like and what you want to do.

[GP-9_Man11786]

If you are going to go with O-guage, there's always a tried and true Lionel ZW for a power supply.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the welcome fellas.  Glad I asked about the incline, I don't really need to incorporate any incline, but I thought it might be easier for dusting/cleaning the train itself.  I plan to install the track around the UPPER perimeter wall inside my garage, which will put the train and track about 10 feet off the floor.  My plan is simply to build a narrow shelf, supported by simple L metal brackets every couple of feet, around the perimeter of the inside of the garage for the track.  The power supply will plug into a convenient receptacle in a cabinet below the track.  I'm surprised I can run an O guage train on 200 lf of track with only 1 transformer/power supply.  I am considering this train set:

http://www.lionelstore.com/site/product.cfm?id=C9C42AEF-0935-B91B-9AADE1F85DB1BE49

 

Please do me the favor of taking a look and let me know if you think it is adequate for what I plan to do.  Thanks very much for your time and opinions.

Best,

Jack

 

[Tom The Brat]

Oh. Around the inside

Except for the doors, you can do about anything you want inside