Garden Railway Forum

I had hoped to use aluminum for all parts of the switch.

I would like to scratch build some switches from code 250 aluminum rail. Can I successfully use epoxy where I would normally solder?

I recently bought some older Bachmann freight car kits and need to find trucks with wheels and couplers to fit them. They need to flat (no arch) in order to work. Does anyone have a source for these?

Plastic track is not really much cheaper than metal, especially if you look at ebay. Sap and bird mess will ruin paint on cars, and I would think would penetrate plastic. Plastic wheel cause drag on metal rails, metal on metal being much smoother, so again I feel your reasoning may be flawed. Obvio...

My thought is to use plastic track several reasons. First is cost, second is the fact that I will be placing my layout under some very messy trees (for shade and other reasons) and believe the plastic would do better in this environment, and third I thought that the natural lubrication properties of...

It was brought up on the advice forum that live steam may have unique issues with plastic track so I post on live steam to address this idea particularly. I was afraid that some into live steam may not see the other post.

I understand that some people paint the plastic track to protect against UV.

I am talking about running outside. Yearly temperatures vary from an occasional 105 F in the summer to an equally occasional lightly below freezing in the winter. I do plan a well packed 1/4 inch crushed gravel bed. If the switches are the weak point, is it possible to integrate metal railed switche...

I am considering running g scale live steam on plastic track. Can this be done successfully? Any tips? Thanks, Jim

I am asking about track that is 100% plastic (ties and rails).

I plan to run live steam and would like to use 45 mm plastic track. What makes of plastic track are available? Do various brands of plastic track interchange? I have seen talk of painting plastic track. What is the best type of paint to use. How is expansion of plastic track best managed? Thanks for...

Thanks. It was very helpful.

It seems that in descriptions of various locomotives, different size designations are used at different times. It is difficult to compare apples to apples. The fact that inch and metric are used does not help the situation. My general interest is with units that can operate on 45 mm track, but I wou...

It does look like sprocket and chain are a better route. Thanks.

On scratch built locomotives, I see power transmission to the wheels via brass gears and a few use a brass chain. I was wondering if anyone has tried o ring material belts to power the wheels. It seems as though it could easily drive both axles and therefore provide enough positive drive. You might ...

Finally after much searching, I did find plans for the Cracker that have been scaled up to use 45 mm track. I am still open to any other ideas for first build that might be out there.

I would imagine that many of the plans for this type of locomotive are possibly out of date as to the most convenient fuel and burner mechanisms. I would also imagine that, say, coal mechanisms have changed very little, but I would also think that other mechanisms for other fuels might have their la...

Is there a build similar to the Cracker that is designed for 45 mm track so I can use 45 mm plastic track?

My draw to G scale is to build live steam. I currently have multiple N scale layouts. In considering a G scale live steam locomotive build, I am not quite sure just what is out there. I am up in years and don't do much machining lately, but have done much precision machining for much of my life. I c...