I must agree with Greg about the minerals in water adding to the corrosion of brass rails. However the solution is much easier than most would beleive. I have sprinkler heads inside my GRR that run twice a week for 5 minues. 16 years ago I started with a drywall sanding pole with 2,000 grit sand paper to clean the rail heads. After noticing some very fine scratching I switched to the green Scotch-Brite dish scrubbing pads. with just over 500 feet of track it took about five minutes to clean the rail heads. As age crept into the knees and hips I made a pair of "sanding cars", a simple wood block that "floats" under the box car by two headless nails. At each end of the block are five "picture hanging nails" driven half way in and the heads cut off, providing spikes to grip the green pads. 2 or 3 trips around the layout every other month does just fine.
Four years ago I purchased a fleet of Light Brite train sets. My local Walmart has them for $55 at Christmas, during the end of their clearance sale they had been marked down to $7, so I bought all five remaing sets. All of the cars have been converted to "other structures", caboose = yard office, passenger cars to hot dog stand and box cars to trackside freight office. Each tender (6 C-cells) has been fitted with sanding blocks, I set the entire fleet in motion every 2 or 3 months for cleaning the rails.
Long story short, brass corrosion is not that big of a deal. And I LOVE the patina that brass turns.
Tom Trigg
SVRR has O gauge track/ties in all metal types. It is for outside. I've used the track/ties for over 20 years outside.
http://www.sunsetvalleyrailroad.com/track---rail.html
Jerry
web site:
http://thescrr.com/
Keep in mind with Gargraves is that the ties are basswood and will need pretreatment with a waterproofing solution and retreatment every so often. Most O scale engines do not have enclosed drives, even a small chuck of dirt or grit can get picked up by gears that have oil on them and jam/strip out the drive gear. I considered doing O scale 3 rail outdoors, but after weighing the pro's and con's. I traded and cosigned it all to a local shop to sell off my mostly Lionel collection and purchased LGB track and trains. O scale can be done outside, but with no UV stablity of the paint/plastic in the trains, exposed gears and absolutly no weatherproofing to the trains, it was a no brainer to step up to G scale for outdoor operation. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
My experience with getting brass wet from sprinklers is that the minerals in the water accelerate the oxidation, fine for battery power, not good for track power. I have SS and hitting it with water keeps it clean.
Greg
Visit my site: http://www.elmassian.com - lots of tips on locos, rolling stock and more.
Click here for Greg's web site
Other brands of O-scale track are available that are UV resistant and would not be fazed by the sprinklers, such as Peco and GarGraves. I have no experience with Atlas track, but would not use it unless the package says the crossties are UV resistant and it has solid brass or stainless rail.
Not sure if Atlas makes an outdoor track. If you are talking about their folded "nickle-silver" track, NO. The ties are not UV resistant, and the rails are N-S coated tin and will rot away in a matter of months. If, on the other hand, you have solid extruded rails of brass / stainless steel / aluminium then you shoud be good, depending on the type of ties used. If you have a box hanging around look to see if it says anything about UV resistance. If not, I would go to your local hobby store and look at the boxes of track and read. I know there are brands available in your scale for outdoor use. Not having any of your scale I have no direct knowledge of which brands are suitable. I may be mistaken, but I beleive that Pico makes a rail that you could use.
If my grey matter has not failed me, I beleive there was a disucussion about a year-year and a half ago. Take a few minutes to scroll back in time, I'm sure you will find the answer.
I have been thinking about doing O gauge outside for sometime and have read and read many sites along with forums but one question I still have that is big with me is:
Most of our yard is grass (our location is in New Mexico) and the rails I would lay would run parallel to the grass in the garden beds meaning the rails at night and early morning would get over spray from the sprinklers each day from April through till about October. Would the Atlas track stand up to the constant over spray of water? I know the water will dry up fast as we are such a DRY and warm climate but worried about the rail and constant exposure to the sprinkler water.
Thanks for any input on this!!!!
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