Like many of you older folks I'm sure, my dad got me started with Lionel O gauge under the xmas tree almost 60 yrs ago. This evolved into 3 sheets of a 4x8 plywood tabletop empire in the basement where I was King. I grew up in the western burbs of Chicago. The Burlington Route three track main line was only a few blocks away. I squashed many pennies on those Burlington rails......
I was an idiot when I was a teenager (by definition) and pawned all my Lionel stuff, dabbled with building an N gauge layout for maybe a year, but ultimately moved on from model railroading to school and girls....
A career in aviation, air traffic control and the US Marine Corps, and family building, kept me away from the hobby. Now, 50 years later I'm back to plotting and scheming a railroad empire. Thus, my effort to join this group.
Model railroading has advanced over the years of my absence. I've renewed my subscription to Model Railroader this past year and subscribed to Garden Railroading magazine. I want to explore heretofore uncharted territory in the hobby (so it seems) by first embracing "dead rail" radio controlled locomotives AND I want to take HO scale outdoors, initially onto my front porch, then across a magnificent bridge span to the tiered flower beds along the south edge of my property. I'm encouraged by RC technology becoming small enough for HO and though G gauge looks like a lot of fun, laying one foot of G gauge track runs about $8.00 where HO track costs about $1.00/ft. Thus, I seek advice. Can I take HO outside with RC, dead rail operations? Or am I crazy?