Hello all, Sim here.
I live in South Florida and have always been a fan of trains. I know what I want, I just have a couple of questions.
What I have: Currently have a home on 30+ acres that is a farm that I produce various landscaping plants and palms and I manufacture items on premise behind my house, and I also have a resale store on site that sells landscaping supplies and pond equipment along with Koi and various fish. The atmosphere in the sales area is "relax, have a look around and enjoy". This is where I primarily want to have the train run through during business hours, and eventually building a small town inside for my enjoyment as well as my customers.
To start I would like to have a couple of G series that runs from the house to the sales area and runs around inside the shop through the ponds and landscaping that I currently have in place. When I designed the layout for the sales area last year I made allowance for the track and grade for up hill, and even a tunnel that will return it to my house where I spend alot of time. The area around my house I have a pond that is 20ft deep and I even made allowances for the integration of track through that area, and eventually I would like for it to come into the house.
I walked off the entire route where I would like for the track to run and it is not a short run. From the house to the store is approximately 210 feet.
Questions:
Love this site and have read alot on it, but sometimes it becomes over whelming with massive information overload.
Any help would be awesome.
Thanks in advance.
Sim
To be honest with you -I think you would be better off using batteries rather than track power. This is because your primary use of it will be display you will not want to have to take the time out to clean all the track -this cuts into your business hours. Allied to this you will get some idiot who will want to see what happens when he puts a steel nail or similar across your tracks... On board Batteries will increase your tractive weight and make the loco climb your gradients and pull a higher load.
When it comes to track -I have found that it is far cheaper and quicker to buy ready made rather than build it yourself. UNLESS you are building a certain specific type of track and need it to look exactly right -then the commercial product is better. I should know I have several tens of metres of PECO SM32 and I am hand building Gauge 3 Edwardian era Colonial pattern track, white metal chairs, brass pins, brass bullhead rail, oak sleepers -exactly as it would have been in the 1900's....
At full speed I can make 1 yard in 2 hours
http://www.cabbagepatchrailway.co.uk/g3track.html
I cannot really recommend track to you -but I would point you in the direction of Aristo Craft -whose January sale of buy 4 get 1 free bears examination. Speaking as an commercial investment it is 25% saving. Tenmille make exceptionally good self assembly track as does Cliff Barker.
http://www.tenmille.co.uk/
http://www.cliffbarker.me.uk/
regards
ralph
The Home of Articulated Ugliness
No quick and easy answers here, Sim, just lots of homework to do.
Track power vs. battery power !?!?! depends on your running preferences. If you are going to have trains running non stop all day then go track power. If you are running just a few hours a couple of times a week then go battery power.
If track power then stainless steel track with rail clamps and power feeds every 100 feet do you just fine.
If battery go with American Mainline brass flex track. I still recommend rail clamps but regular joiners will work.
Either way long flex track and a dual rail bender like the Train-Li bender is in your future.
Either way the new AristoCraft 2.4 GHz Revolution Train Engineer looks very promising for loco control (track or battery power). Chips will be plug and play for newer Aristo locos - http://www.aristocraft.com/vbulletinforums/showthread.php?t=13437
Spend some time on what your going to put your track on. A good base will head off many future maintenance and running issues. I'm a big support of ladder track systems and I have few threads on them in the Railway design, construction, and gardening section.
Have fun!
-Brian
SIM
I would refer you to the Walter Anderson Nursery (Poway Store, San Diego) web site. They have a rather large layout that runs most of the time. They have mostly re-tracked and replaced stolen equipment from a theft a few months ago. Last time I was there, they had plywood strips as stand-ins for the stolen bridges. Have a look at their site, especially their stats page.
http://www.walterandersen.com/
I am assuming here but I'm thinking we have similar climates. So you should be able to use their efforts as a good working model for your efforts. All of their track is brass, which has aged very well. They use track power, and accept visiting equipment to run on their rails by appointmet. If they have an employee or visitor running battery power they just turn off their power supplies. Good luck on your effort and am anxiously awaiting construction and running pics.
Tom Trigg
You need a 1:1 two foot narrow gauge railroad on that much property. Get with it.
Hi Sim
I have a fairly large RR and use battery power. BUT
In your case I think you need to "think" commercial aplication. Invest in SS track, rail joiners and a good size power pack. All steel wheels and strong roadbed. It will be there for awhile.
You need to think durable and long term.
e-mail me if I can help.
this is a great web site.
Is it REAL? or Just 1:29 scale?
Long live Outdoor Model Railroading.
Thank you to all that have replied. I can see that this community is one that I am going to enjoy being a member of for a while.
When I start the final layout, I will update with layouts and photographs.
All the best and Happy New Year.
Howdy Sim, I agree with all the previous responses giving you have a lot to ponder. As for myself I have a track powered, 425’ +/- loop and use Aristo/USA brass track; kind of a meandering walk through the garden track plan. Aristo & USA track use screw type rail joiners. I use the floating method of right-of-way construction, but Brian’s (above) use of ladder construction looks promising. I use an Aristo Ultima 10amp power supply with Aristo Train Engineers. It gives me walk around capability and in your case it could provide instant shut down in emergencies.
I notice you are in Ft. Lauderdale, FL lightning capital of the U.S. maybe planet Earth. Battery power might be a good option, but than a strike on the track could be damaging to anything around it. I worked for Southern Bell in Ft. Lauderdale in the 70s and saw balls of electricity travel along cables and open wire out around Andy Town (84 & 27) once catching a pole on fire and one time a strike at the SW corner of the airport hit a pole and melted the cable down to a distribution box on the ground and out several underground cables 20’ in all directions. I would talk some area GRS members.
Good luck and have fun, Rob
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