grandpopswalt wrote: Snowshoe,If the price of track is really a big problem, and it could be for a young family man, "rolling your own" might be a good alternative. And, if you're not too fussy about scale appearance, you could fabricate track made with 3/16" x 1/2" steel or aluminum strip, gorilla glued into milled PTL ties. I've never done this but I remember reading about a guy in Austrialia, I think, who made many hundreds of feet of track for very little money. Matter-of-fact he scratch built almost everything and wound up with a good looking garden railroad for a couple hundred bucks. And I'll bet he enjoys his railroad just as much as some of us who have spent, or are about to spend, many, many thousands of dollars on ours. Just remember that this is a very diverse hobby, there's no "right way" to do it, it's all about what you find enjoyable. Don't get hung up on what you see in the magazines. Those are usually examples of the finest, and most expensive, layouts out there. That's something to shoot for eventually but right now get something running and start enjoying. Walt Edit: Just found the information I mentioned. The article is entitled "The Sandstone & Termite Railway" in the October 1999 issue of Garden Railways magazine.
Snowshoe,
If the price of track is really a big problem, and it could be for a young family man, "rolling your own" might be a good alternative. And, if you're not too fussy about scale appearance, you could fabricate track made with 3/16" x 1/2" steel or aluminum strip, gorilla glued into milled PTL ties. I've never done this but I remember reading about a guy in Austrialia, I think, who made many hundreds of feet of track for very little money. Matter-of-fact he scratch built almost everything and wound up with a good looking garden railroad for a couple hundred bucks. And I'll bet he enjoys his railroad just as much as some of us who have spent, or are about to spend, many, many thousands of dollars on ours.
Just remember that this is a very diverse hobby, there's no "right way" to do it, it's all about what you find enjoyable. Don't get hung up on what you see in the magazines. Those are usually examples of the finest, and most expensive, layouts out there. That's something to shoot for eventually but right now get something running and start enjoying.
Walt
Edit: Just found the information I mentioned. The article is entitled "The Sandstone & Termite Railway" in the October 1999 issue of Garden Railways magazine.
I bet he enjoys it more than most because he built it all up from scratch himself.
tangerine-jack wrote: hoofe116 wrote: ............ Since my layout will be ca 1880, and since I've had to move indoors for health reasons, I've been contemplating wooden rails. I reason thusly: as a retired tool & die maker, I see no insurmountable problem in regrinding a router bit or the like to something near a rail shape. I haven't researched early strap-iron track yet, so might not even have to do very much of it. But matching the contours of a rail isn't impossible. ............Les W. The strap iron/wood rails used by the predecessors of the Norfolk Southern can be seen in their museum at the corporate HQ in Norfolk. I suspect most other rails of the period were very similar. It is simply square wood laminate with a strap of iron along the top. It would be very simple indeed to duplicate this in G scale and no special tooling will be required. Pins (long nails) driven in at angles secured the track to the ties. This method was cheap, quick and quite strong enough for the teakettle engines and 4 wheel cars of the day.I expect that each railroad used their own unique rail system, as this was long before any standardization came along. So don't feel obliged to follow any conventions if you are using this method of track laying. Have fun and now you got me thinking......
hoofe116 wrote: ............ Since my layout will be ca 1880, and since I've had to move indoors for health reasons, I've been contemplating wooden rails. I reason thusly: as a retired tool & die maker, I see no insurmountable problem in regrinding a router bit or the like to something near a rail shape. I haven't researched early strap-iron track yet, so might not even have to do very much of it. But matching the contours of a rail isn't impossible. ............Les W.
............ Since my layout will be ca 1880, and since I've had to move indoors for health reasons, I've been contemplating wooden rails. I reason thusly: as a retired tool & die maker, I see no insurmountable problem in regrinding a router bit or the like to something near a rail shape. I haven't researched early strap-iron track yet, so might not even have to do very much of it. But matching the contours of a rail isn't impossible. ............Les W.
The strap iron/wood rails used by the predecessors of the Norfolk Southern can be seen in their museum at the corporate HQ in Norfolk. I suspect most other rails of the period were very similar. It is simply square wood laminate with a strap of iron along the top. It would be very simple indeed to duplicate this in G scale and no special tooling will be required. Pins (long nails) driven in at angles secured the track to the ties. This method was cheap, quick and quite strong enough for the teakettle engines and 4 wheel cars of the day.
I expect that each railroad used their own unique rail system, as this was long before any standardization came along. So don't feel obliged to follow any conventions if you are using this method of track laying. Have fun and now you got me thinking......
TJ, you flatter me. Got you thinking? I had you pegged for one of these hardened, bronzed modelers to whom nothing is new.
Howsumever, my kingdom for a website that shows what you're talking about. I suppose the 'pins' would have to go from the inside top toward the outside bottom, to compensate for the 'shove' of the rail wheel? What'd they do for radius over the edge of the wooden rail? Use a form of angle-iron? Or was the iron strap thick enough (vs wide) to take the coned wheel surface and keep it off the wood? Or did they just let the wood worry about itself until the rail was worn in?
My initial intention was, since I have some plastic track that came with the various sets I've found at auctions and garage sales, that I'd merely duplicate that shape by grinding a router bit down. Or perhaps a pair to account for the reverse radii. Might get away with a small ball-nosed mill bit, too. Haven't done any more than think about it, either. But, it happens that I now have some extra drivers from the stationary engine project, and it came to me. They're big enough to 'bash up a teakettle, a domed-boiler 4-2-0 or somesuch when I read your post.
At least I now know why the price of plastic track has shot up on EvilBay. I thought it was just the Season. I'd been ignoring the suddenly outlandish prices for brass. Shows you how good I keep up, yes it does.
Les W.
cabbage wrote:I do seem to remember an article in Garden Railways about some american who was building his track from sawn lengths of hardboard... He deep soaked them in preservative and varnished them. I d know that in Napier NZ there used to be a fairly extensive "pole way" railway using split tree trunks and lengths of saplings until the iron rails could be ferried to the site.regardsralph
Cabbage, I don't know much about 1:1 RRing, but I do know a good deal about split logs. How on earth did they do that? Almost must've had a wide-faced wheel. Edumacate me, please.
The Home of Articulated Ugliness
hoofe,
Bronzed? No, not I. I keep all my options open and I am more than ready to steal, um er, that is to say, be inspired by someone else's work. Forward progress is only obtained by change.
Here are a couple of links I found that are very good in describing wood rails. Enjoy.
http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/railway/amwood.htm
http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/tksa.Html
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
Cabb & TJ:
Many, many thanks for the fascinating sites.
I spent so much time perusing them I had to get my firewood inside in the first dark. (I heat with a fireplace).
Whoa, did I learn some interesting stuff. Some, I'm gonna model, if it doesn't leak out of my head. But I took notes and copied pixes.
It's interesting how, of all the stuff I've been reading, pictures studied, sites surfed, that it's starting to make sense in a comprehensively technical way.
And, I don't have to grind a special bit.
<<quote user="S&G Rute of the Silver River"]I'm giving a finger to LGB and making my own track outa code 100 rail. I have boxes of the stuff and shuld have an interesting effect when the trains run on em.[/quote>>
Code 100? That's only a tenth of an inch. Will the wheel flanges clear that? Most seem deeper than that.
-Brian
Code 100 is HO, smallest I've seen in G thats been successfull is in the 225 range.
Maybe do a test section and see how well it works?
Also San Val still had a good supply of track when I was there, with their blow out closing prices, might be worth it to give them a call and see what they still have.
Have fun with your trains
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
You made some switches for wooden rail? I'm going to--was going to make 'em for the brass rail by copying an Aristo, but that's now out. Could I get you to send me a pix of one? As for buying parts, I figure on making my own, doesn't look that difficult. (I may have to eat those words).
You're giving a finger to LGB?
When I priced a little green engine, they wanted my whole arm!
Not infrequently
Quite a few times
Every now and again, I try to reply to a post via the 'quote' thingy. I get a red error msg that says, 'non-matching quotes in reply' or somesuch thing. What's going wrong? I don't delete or alter any part of the quoted post.
Les W. Computer guru. Not.
hoofe116 wrote: You made some switches for wooden rail? I'm going to--was going to make 'em for the brass rail by copying an Aristo, but that's now out. Could I get you to send me a pix of one? As for buying parts, I figure on making my own, doesn't look that difficult. (I may have to eat those words). Les W.
Notice that only one "rail" is pivoted. No frog, guide rails or other such technology is used. There can be any number of modifications or adaptations of the method shown in the photo, remember that wood rail (normally topped with iron) pre-dates any known standard system, and trains were slow and light weight, so use your imagination.
I afford track buy selling my HO stuff and buying ALUMINUM track since I am going RC and battery operated. So Far I have acquired:
1 set of Pennsylvania locos all DCC ready 2 engines each F-ABA set.
12 Bachmann 3 hopper coal cars with metal wheels
7 various Reefers
I just purchased a 36 ton 2 truck Shay
96 feet Aluminum starights
48 feet Aluminum in curves
Buy a little at atime. Barry
Run the Town wrote: Buy a little at atime. Barry
Yep, that is how I do it. Very slowly now
Yeah, Jack, I saw that pic in one of the many sites you and another person posted for me. Upon closer inspection, the 'tread' of the wheel, especially the l/h one, would have to be wide enough to accept two diameters of log rail for the 'through' direction. And there should be a notch in the tunout rail to the lower right somewhere in line with the through rail. Not that that thing moved with any speed. But I bet it was heavy.
I'm sold on wooden bar rail in my mind. It's affordable, doable and mostly in period for my SL. That, and a mix of plastic track for the 'feeder line' should fix me right up.
Yeah, using my imagination isn't a problem. I used to be paid to build things that were essentially engineering-study model, not even prototypes, though I did some of those. My usual request from the engineer was and explanation of what was needed, and "see what you can come up with." Rarely did I have even a sketch to work from.
When I posted, I was thinking along the lines of squared beams and bar iron on top, plus frogs as needed, as in some of those articles I read.
As you said, I'll just have to sit down and fab something up. I enjoy that kinda stuff, anyway. I was hoping for a picture to perhaps avoid reinventing the wheel.
Sold and old Boeing 747 the other day and I was able to buy almost 30 feet of 332 brass with it.
Then I unloaded the cruise line and bought another 42 feet.
Tomorrow I take the youngest one to the appraiser and see what I can get for her. The oldest one reached adulthood before the price went up.
All kidding aside, I haven't bought track in over two years and still have about a 100' sitting in my garage that I haven't yet decided where to lay it, and NO, I'm not selling it so don't anybody ask.
Mark
Snowshoe, check with Aristo with those reciepts to see about buy 4 and get 1 free. You do not need to buy all the track at the smae time. I beleive 2007 had the deal for the year due to the price increase and ends Feb 2008.
Sometimes you can get the free track without buying 4 boxes.
E-mail them with the track type and amounts to see if they will 'deal' with your track buys.
Usually buy by the box A/C or USA but recently found 2 boxes of AML for $249.00 each some good said about this track some bad. But at half the cost of the others I'll wait and see for myself. The price is for 72 feet per box of brass
Dave
If LGB/Aristo/USA seems expensive, don't ask how much Llagas Creek goes for
I'm not sure how many feet of it we have (maybe 250) but it cost a small fortune to say the least. And unlike LGB/Aristo/USA, the curves needed to be bent by hand. Although assembling your own track helps a bit price wise. But then the switches are a whole other issue, with prices going out of this world for a single assembled switch.
I don't think we could have gone with this track if we didn't already have so much rolling stock. The price is just too much to start from scratch.
I wonder if there's a market for all the LGB track I have sitting in boxes from the previous indoor layout?
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
I am planning to double track the loop around my yard. I will be taking twice as long to do it, due to the price of track. It will get done, but will take longer. I did the first loop before prices went up. Once the track is purchased, it will last a long time. I use Aristo brass.
Best, Mark
hudrail wrote:Here in the UK we suffer with track prices so badly. My new G scale track is more expensive than my 5" gange track ! See brenthouse.co.uk . £6000 is the amount I have spent since August 2007 and "can I afford it"? No Way. Life is a state of mind. I started in 1964 0n 3 August when I became an Indentured Apprentice and have built up the largest private railway in 5" in the UK. Now into G Scale I will spend what it takes , the wife knows where the door is so get your priorities , decide your requirements , order the trains , and blow the consequences . P.S the richest man in the grave yard dosent play trains poor fellow
The problem with that is if I just buy what I need all at once and not worry I will no longer have a house and yard to display my stuff. That theory will never work.
For now Im just going with my basic 12 by 22 ft area and putting in a basic loop with some S curves and make it more detail to add intrest to the layout. By next winter I will start making my own track to add on. As long as I have a loop that will be plenty for me. All need is a few more curve tracks and a switch or two. The rest of the material I can get from my property (rock etc...) Hopefully some day the track prices will go down again.
Not Australian, he's from New Zealand.
You can go to his web site at www.gscalechuffchuff.com
and your right, I am having a lot of fun at minimal costs
Tony.
Sometimes you can find a deal!!!
I was at the show in Springfield, MA and I got 4 1 foot USA new track for $1.25 each.
My friend bought 9 feet for $10.00 from the same person.
These were under a table and hard to see, but I spotted them and went for it.
RO iis up to $55 for 10 pairs of wheels, used to be $50.
I quit buyn track. Seems copper used for bullets (Jacketed) went up as war going on and they will pay a high price for it even though we have a surplus of it, makes no since but that is my thought on "where it is all going" crushing blows to RR track, wire we use and who knows what else down the road.
I will stop buyn and they can keep it on there darn shelves!
Toad ( waiting for dad to come home)
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