Beginners trackwork questions

Hello all, I built a small outdoor garden railroad this spring, I bought an inepensive Bachman set and some Aristocraft track. After building the raised garden in which the layout would go, I established the right of way and laid the track on 3/8" marble chip. This material has proven unsatisfactory as it will not tamp down, it tends to scatter when tamped. I went ahead anyway, to see what would happen over the summer. My first question is: What material would you recommend I replace it with next spring? A suggestion on where it can be purchased or other names it may be known as would be appreciated as well. Second question: Track power. Being an HO indoor modeler, I knew enough to run bus wires under the ballast and a feed to every rail. I have grown tired of cleaning the track manually. My first impulse was to convert my Bachman 4-6-0 to radio/battery control. I understand that I can expect the batteries to last only 2 hours or so if left running continuously, is that correct? If I go battery powered, I would want sound as well. What will that do to battery life? How long to recharge? Is it a pain to swap the batteries in the tender? Should I look at track cleaning cars? Any recommendations on ones that work well? OK, thats a lot of questions, I know. This question of track power is one I need to solve or I may as well retreat to my basement again! The purpose of the outdoor railroad is quite different than my Ho one, outside I just want to run continuous without paying much attention (at least for now) When I have visitors for a barbeque, I would like the train to run for most of the day, making batteries seem like not such a great choice. I would appreciate any comments from those of you who have gone thru this. Thanks very much.

Gary

 

Welcome to the world of outdoor railroading! A few years back, after 40+ yrs in HO, I too decided to go largescale outdoors but not having a computer I wasn't privy to all the train websites - you are smart to take advantage of the wealth of experience & knowledge of other garden railroaders. I started out using code 250 aluminun figuring if brass track wasn't ideal for my basement HO then it sure shouldn't be any good outside, right? WRONG !! LGB & Aristocraft brass are very good makers of code 332 brass track. Since I had trouble keeping the 250 aluminun clean and getting enough "juice" thru,( too small a power pack), I decided to try Radio Control Battery ( only had 2 engs at the time). I like it, no track cleaning or fooling with railjoiners. Draw back is that running time is usually 2 hrs or less - alright by me as I normally don't have more time than that anyway. However, my now 12 yr old son got VERY interested about 2 yrs ago and thru Christmas, birthday, etc he has added 3 new engs to our roster, too expensive to convert those too over to R/C so I have been in the process of changing over the 250 aluminum to 332 aristocraft brass using Hillman railjoiners where needed - expensive - but worth it in the long run espicially when I see the smile on my son's face as he operates a train. We still have to get an Aristocraft Train Engineer & a 10 or 15 amp power supply. For ballast we use slag, others use pressure treated wood, crusher fines, or pea gravel. (pea gravel not the best as it rolls away sometimes during heavy rain). Again, welcome, and I'm sure you will get many more replies with a lot better info than I provided. Fred

 

Glad to see ya' running "BIG" trains.

I spent over 28 years in N Scale before I got into this and I've never been more satisfied. Not with all of the products, because some are very, very bad, but there is nothing like getting your trains running outside.

I use 332 brass in the yard. Sure it's high but the deer can tromp all over it an cxause no damage. I don't use expensive joiners. With only about 150 feet of track the screw-on clips that come with the Aristo product work just fine. I also run track wires about every 15 feet or so along the main line. Never had a problem using the Aristo 10 Amp PS and Train Engineer Tx/Rx.

I would never use a track cleaning car when a 90 cent bit of dry wall sander wrapped around a small sponge works wonders and only takes me 5 minutes every two weeks.

Never forget the KISS principle and you'll be just fine.

Pictures at PhotoPoint.Com

Enjoy.

 

Fred and Dave, Thanks for the welcome and the advise. Dave, if you only have to clean track every two weeks, I'm missing something. Basically I found that I had to clean the track almost every time I wanted to run, or at least every three days or so. And the contortions I had to go thru not to step on plants and such made it no fun. You say you have a ten amp power supply, that may be my #1 problem, as I used the cheap power pack which came with the Bachman set. What are your thoughts on which route I should go - new larger capacity power pack or battery? Also on the subject of track cleaning, I had thought to build a simple track cleaning car similar to ones I use on my HO layout, which are simply blocks of masonite with the heads of sheetrock nails epoxied to one side, the nails fit in holes drilled in the floor of a boxcar and the masonite pad rubs the rails with just the force of its own weight. If I take some 1/4" plywood, I could make a similar "sled", use double sided tape to attach the sheet rock sander you mentioned, and (hopefully be able to)push it ahead of the loco for a couple laps, then remove the cleaner pad and return the boxcar to regular use. Please let me know what you think.
On the topic of proper ballast, the garden centers I visited didn't seem to offer anything other than the 3/8" marble chip. Any suggestions on what type of retailer I should visit? Thanks for any and all help.

Gary

 

Look in your local Yellow Pages under Landscaping supply. We have one (of several) just down the road from us here in Ft.Worth, that has everything from fine sand to heavy rocks used in the Landscaoing business. They have 3 grades of cinders (drains water), crushed rock 5 grades (large is like real ballast), pebbles 4 grades (from aquarium size 1/8" up to 1-1/2" size), and the marbles, granites in varius colors, black basalt, etc. We bought sand and peatmoss mix by the yard for our flower beds, cheap loaded right into my pickup bed. I have one of those roll-out sheets, so is easy unload. Bring your own container, (wash tub),and you can buy it by the pound for small amounts.

 

I've been toying with the idea of (gasp!) putting in an HO track around a flower bed on a raised track...... I've looked at the whole issue of voltage drop on long track and all. I agree that you really only have to look at connecting to the track every once in a long while with the large track you have to work with. A larger power supply would help out with multiple engine consists, as well as more power available for lighted cars and such.

Have you looked at increasing the number of pickups you have for your engine? The engine and the tender together, adding pickups to some of your cars for lights and paralleling them to the engine, or running "MU" cables between diesls to parallel the pickups? This should help a bunch to improve the overall pickup reliability of power. Remember, if each engine or car can only maintain the availability of power 95% of the time, which would be really poor, if two cars or engines are wired togeter then the relaibility of power would jump to 99.75%. The more reliable you can make your pickups, the less often you'll be forced to clean your track.

I hope this has helped....

Mark

 

Thanks for the suggestions regarding ballast. There are no farm supply type businesses around here, I will check with landscape suppliers in the early spring. I am sure I will find something better than what I have. Regarding power supplies, I'm inclined to hold off on battery power for another year, and give a more powerful power pack a try first. The one that came with the Bachman set is rated 11VA, if I'm right that would be .68 amp at 16 volt. Rather than spend the $130 or so for Aristocraft 10 amp pack, I was thinking of using my Digirax DCC which is in use for my HO trains. I could install a switch next to the unit to connect to either the HO or G, run wires out to the garden and run as analog till I install a decoder. This would give me 5 amps. And cost me virtually nothing. Can anyone out there tell me if they think this will help performance? Thanks.

Gary

 

It's been a while.

The Chicken Grit suggestion is a good one. I use crushed rock (sometimes called Grey) for the road bed, lay the track on that and "ballest" with the smallest Chicken Grit I can find. But any fine ROUGH type of stone will do becaise it locks together and stays in place.

The 10A PS is a good one. I only run leads to the track every 10-15 feet and that seems to work if I'm carefull to lock-tight the Aristo track joiners. Two years now.

One of the reasons I can keep the track clean is that I've removed all the plastic wheel sets on the rolling stock and replaced them with steel wheels. 'Course this isn't for power pick-up but they don't deposit gunk on the track. Also the USA Trains GP9's and SD40-2's have sliders that help pick up power AND keep the track clean.

I wrap the dry wall sander over a small spunge (about 6" by 3") that I have glued to a piece of wood the same size. Two small screws hold it in place. A hinged handle about three feet long helps me slide it along the rail and into tunnels etc. Like I said, about every two or three weeks.

Strongly suggest you pick up "Getting Started in Garden Railroading" by Allan W Miller. About $25.00 US. That book should answer ALL your questions without getting on line. Sure my railway is in there but I recommend it anyway.

Enjoy