Garden Railway Forum

Thanks Jim, I had forgotten the name but the brown coloured loco uses a Dholpur chassis but freelance in appearance.

idlemarvel wrote: ↑Sun Jun 23, 2019 6:51 pm The problem with 3 1/2" (in my eyes) is that you need a raised track so passengers can straddle the rails. Makes points a bit tricky. You can get away with ground level with 5" (I'm hoping this is really true!).

There are a couple of older live steam tracks here in Melbourne with 3.5 "/5" dual gauge track at ground level, one was built that way and the other was built elevated and later lowered to ground level. Locos run on either gauge and the passenger trucks run all on the 5" gauge.

Even 5" gauge is a bit problematic unless you can keep a tight rein on the passengers. On your home track it would be best to sit the grandkids in front of you on the riding truck. That way they can see where they are going and are less likely to lean out, plus you can keep an eye on what they are doing.

Raised tracks are like straddle beam monorails, you can use segmented switches to change route instead of using turnouts.

Regards,
Graeme

I have seen some wonderful pictures of people driving 31/2" on the ground. Standard procedure was to lie flat on a long riding truck.

GTB wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2019 12:31 pm ...
Even 5" gauge is a bit problematic unless you can keep a tight rein on the passengers. On your home track it would be best to sit the grandkids in front of you on the riding truck. That way they can see where they are going and are less likely to lean out, plus you can keep an eye on what they are doing.
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Sounds like good advice Graeme, thanks! :-)

They do look really nice locos Tom, but well out of my league price wise. My older brother has made 4, 5" gauge and a couple of 3 1/2" also. The one he is most proud of has cost £4,000 to build, but he does have one that is worth £28,000...

Needless to say he is a snob when it comes to my 32mm Billy. But at least I can run my Billy with out having to get a lifting platform and start running it after about 5-10 minutes steaming up....I fell asleep waiting for his to get going recently.....

Seriously though, I love all forms of gauge, it keeps me fascinated all the time with the power they have no matter what the gauge is running...