Garden layout

I would not do this.  Dirt is the enemy of any railroad.  You simply can not control it outdoors.  In HO, your tolerances are so tight that bird droppings can cause derailments.  UV rays will destroy your buildings in short a short time.  Consider that you will also have to contend with rain.  Remember that a rain drop is full scale while your track is 1/87th, so getting even 1/4 inch of rain in an hour is like getting nearly 22 inches of rain.  If you still decide to do this, I would research it further through the Garden Railways Magazine, and their forum site.  I really think this is would be a maintenance nightmare. Sorry.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin, for your very informitive reply.

There have been successful HO and OO garden back yard railroads, almost all in places where the weather is generally cool (but not snow country) and direct sunlight couldn't reach the surface.

Where I live is the exact opposite - superhigh UV on the 330+ days of sunshine per year, no humidity, temperature well over 100 for most of five months...  Even so, I, too, contemplated building in my back yard.  So I took a length of Atlas code 100 flex track, put it on the 36 inch high retaining wall which would have been the edge of the 'layout space,' stood a yard-sale refugee box car on it and retired to the air-conditioned spaces.

After a month of super-bright sunshine, gale-force winds that blew the boxcar off the track (or over on its side,) one rain event when the newly-melted hailstones hit like scale artillery..., I stripped the UV ruined tie strip off the two stick rails and consigned the faded, flaking box car to the dumpster.  The layout is under construction in the garage - not climate controlled, hotter than the lee hinge of Hades for most of the time between equinoxes, but at least shaded from the sun and sheltered from the infrequent rain.  (The stick rails have been recycled as hand-laid specialwork.)

My advice?  Do what I did.  Put a length of your choice of track on a pressure-treated 2-by, stand one sacrificial car on it and give it a month in the weather.  Then make your decision - based on your own results, not the opinions of people from widely-varying climates.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a Mojave Desert garage)

I live in Ohio...

I do both indoor and outdoor. HO in the basement, G in the yard. I cannot imagine the HO stuff outside. The G stuff is built for and made of materials that can stay outside. The HO is not. Your track will be trashed in a matter of months. Then there is the matter of ballast. Its a challenging daily project in G....I can only imagine the blue swear words I would be using in HO outside.

Then there is that whole level track thing. Your HO stuff will rock around...and probably topple like mad. If you would do HO outside, you have to have that track immaculately clean to get good pick up for power. Outdoors I use battery power...couldn't imagine going back to track power. You will be polishing railheads daily....and tiny ones too. The rail joiners won't take it.

Do you have pets? That is a whole different issue...because they have no respect for the railroad. A doggie dookie would be the size of a truck....

Rick

I live in KC and did the same thing, try some HO in the backyard ( I already have a fairly extensive G gauge layout out back) and the HO just doesn't cut it.  buildings aren't protected for UV, plastic walls aren't strong enough to survive hail storms and falling limbs, tie strip on HO track probably wouldn't last very long, at least my test strip didn't), and on and on.  Electronics would be a nightmare, in fact, I use battery power/radio control on my garden layout so track condition for contact isn't an issue.

I continue to enjoy my HO Santa Fe in the basement, and the G gauge Santa Fe outdoors, and the two do not mix together.

Bob

This question comes up a couple of times a year, and always gets the same answers.

People in England do it all the time.  Peco makes HO scale track with UV inhibitors to prevent sunlight damage, but Atlas and other brands of flex track will deteriorate very rapidly in the sun.  I don't think the normal Peco track sold in the U.S. is the same as that used in England.

In order to run HO outdoors, it would need to be elevated to prevent detailments from vegetation, snails, worms, whatever getting on the rail.  To an HO train, a blade of grass is going to seem like running over a concrete block with your car.

Rolling stock and buildings wouldn't last six months outdoors.  The slightest breeze can blow your train off the track.

 If you want to see what can happen to HO scale track and rolling stock outdoors, just put a piece of track and a cheap boxcar or building outdoors in the sun for a couple of months.

I have both HO and G scale layouts, and would not even consider trying to use HO outdoors.  During our club's open houses, we set up an outdoor HO modular layout and sometimes have trouble keeping rolling stock from getting blown off the layout in even the slightest breeze because it's nowhere near as heavy as G scale products..

This question does come up often. I have often thought of doing so myself, but know better.

G scale garden railroad track is UV protected so it can withstand the sun better. Garden railroad stuff is designed to survive the elements better and to be run outside. I would not leave my garden trains outside alone on the tracks when not in use for fear they may get stolen. If you have lots of kids in your area, it is sure to attract lots of {unwanted?} attention. G scale stuff can be "scale appropriate" for certain types of miniature plantings. Many use battery operated G scale as water and electricity don't mix and to avoid electrical contact issues from corrosion on the rails. Many G scale buildings are built out of real wood painted to last in weather. Hop on over to the Garden Scale forums here for more information on G scale and garden RRing. There is a lot of helpful info there for G scale..

HO track ties will not stand up to the sun or weather as they are not UV protected. HO is not scale appropriate to almost any garden plantings and in fact could get "lost" in plantings. If you wanted to set up and tear down your outdoor layout, track, powerpack and all everytime you wanted to "play", then you could have an HO outdoor layout. But to leave all or part of it outdoors, I wouldn't do it as you'd be replacing it periodically due to weather rot.

AS others have said tack down a piece of HO flextrack outside and see what happens in your area after awhile and determine what you want to do.

If you want a garden Railroad, I would investigate the garden scale forums here and investigate Garden Railways Magazines and build a proper garden railroad that will last and provide years of enjoyment.

Just my opinions, others are sure to vary.