# Questions on Homemade G-Scale Track



## Sweet Dreamer

Hello everyone, 

For several years I've been thinking about building a permanent outdoor G-scale train layout. I've actually done some work toward that goal. I have set up my G-scale trains temporarily in the area I plan on making this layout. But I've just been using standard indoor track. So I can't leave it up. Plus I don't really have enough track to layout it out precisely as I would like. 

What I have decided to do is build my own track from scratch including the turnouts. I've been studying construction methods for a while and I have a good idea of how to proceed. However, even building homemade track can be pretty expensive. I'm currently looking at paying out $200 just for 1/8" x 1/2" aluminum bar stock that I'll need for the rails. The rest will be made of wood and I have the materials for that. In fact, this is actually only half as much track as I'll need. So by the time I'm done I'll have over $400 just in aluminum rails. 

This has also been the major deal that is holding me back. I'm having a difficult time actually placing the order.  This is a lot of cash for me. 

I'm actually getting ready to bite the bullet and order the aluminum bar stock. Or at least half of it to get me started. But I thought I would post here in case others have possible alternative solutions. 

I just drew up a rough draft of my layout using AnyRail. Apparently I'm going to need about 150 feet of track total. That's for the whole layout which is a bit ambitious. In the beginning I'll settle for just a single loop in the lower right green area. 

Here's a picture of my AnyRail drawing. This is just a crude drawing not meant to be the precise working plans. 










To start with I'd like to build the 30 foot long loop in the lower right green area. This is actually a flower garden that is in my front yard. The orange "Gate Bridge" would be nice to expand the layout across a garden path to make an additional loop. Finally I would like to add the siding tracks I've drawn in. 

In any case, I thought I'd post this here for any comments and feedback from Garden Train enthusiasts. 

I'm also wondering if there is any other way to make even cheaper track?


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## Sweet Dreamer

I'm getting carried away since I'm drawing this up. 

I've added a second railroad in other part of the garden. I already have the trains. The first one I drew up is a passenger train. There are actually two trains for that layout, and the reason for the by-pass tracks. 

This second section I just added will be for a logging train and logging operations. I also have two trains for this layout as well, so I'd like to add by pass and spurs here as well. But I'm just toying with the designs right now. Building a single loop of track will be the first order of business. 










By the way, the dark green is lawn. The light green is the garden beds, and the gray are stone pathways. All the tracks will be elevated on a platform only large enough to hold the tracks. There will be some dioramas put in place too. But I didn't bother drawing them right now.

The big hold up here is the cost of the aluminum rails. What a bummer! I almost built this last year. What I have drawn here could end up being $1000 just in aluminum rails, especially if I add more by-pass tracks and spurs on the logging layout.


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## Scrub

What? Getting carried away? No.... That never happens. But I would bet you could find used track cheaper than what you are spending on making your own


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## RonthePirate

Scrub said:


> What? Getting carried away? No.... That never happens. But I would bet you could find used track cheaper than what you are spending on making your own


Scrub, I don't know about that. I looked on Fleabay. They seem to be quite expensive especially for brass track.
And I didn't see any aluminum rail advertised.

I also read on that rail type. Unless you have a very dry climate, they don't recommend aluminum rail as it corrodes easily.
They also give it a poor rating for conductivity.
Tell the truth, I forgot where this was, it was awhile back.


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## Sweet Dreamer

Ok, I'm getting pretty excited, I need someone to calm me down. 

But don't burst my bubble entirely. 

I've been doing some researching here and from what I can tell I can purchase aluminum bar stock in 8 foot lengths for about $5.11 a piece including shipping. That comes out to about 64 cents a foot, or since two rails are required for track, this will be about $1.28 a foot for the actual cost of the track when finished (not counting the other materials such as wood). But I already have the lumber. 

According to AnyRail, my wildest ambition will require about 315 feet of track. At $1.28 a foot that would be a grand total of about $403. That's not bad! That's less than half what I had first thought it would be. 

My first layout requires about 150 feet of track. At $1.28 per foot that's about $192. 

The second layout requires about 160 feet of track. At $1.28 per foot that's about $206.

This is sounding really great! 

If I were to buy new G-scale brass track I would pay about $6 per foot. For this whole shebang that would 315 feet or $1,890 worth of track! Or $900 for just the first layout alone. 

Of course brass is far better than aluminum, no doubt about it. But this is a "Poor man's railroad". I'm definitely going with the aluminum rails. Plus if I go with standard track I'd need to buy the turnout's etc, which are extremely costly too. When this aluminum rail I'll build my own turnouts, so that's included. 

I realize that aluminum isn't ideal, but there are things that can be done to protect it and keep it from oxidizing and deteriorating. Spraying it with something like WD-40 periodically would certainly give it a longer life. I could even build a maintenance train specifically to do that. 

I'm pretty excited and thinking about ordering some rails. 

Here's my latest drawings.


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## CRH

Ambitious layout for sure!

Are you using track or battery power?

I tried aluminum track indoors w/ track power and it just plain didn't work. The track would corrode right after it was cleaned! The same with Lionel large scale wheels on the locomotives...made out of aluminum they would work today picking rail power but tomorrow would need cleaning...I gave up on those things.

Stainless steel track is the best for outdoor use but the prices are in the stratosphere!! Polk's is up to something like $12 per foot.


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## Sweet Dreamer

CRH said:


> Ambitious layout for sure!


Do you think so? I actually thought they were fairly humble. Especially in comparison with what I've see other people doing with outdoor G-scale layouts. These are two entirely separate railroads. Each one having about 150 to 200 feet of track. If you look at the dimensions they are actually pretty small. It's only 30 feet lengthwise across that main loop. I guess the ambiguous parts are all the side passes I'd like to have. But this is because I would actually like to have two trains running on each railway and I need to have places were they can pass each other. 



CRH said:


> Are you using track or battery power?


I am currently planning on using track power. And this is why I'm going for aluminum rails. If I were going to switch over to battered powered locomotives I could potentially get by with using plastic or wooden rails. That would seriously reduce the cost of the track. That might be the way to go actually now that you have me thinking about it. If I made the rails out of wood the cost of the track would be negligible. 

You have me seriously thinking about this now. 

Suddenly I could move from costly track down to track that's next to being FREE. I'll have to look into what it takes to run these locomotives via on-board batteries and R/C. 



CRH said:


> I tried aluminum track indoors w/ track power and it just plain didn't work. The track would corrode right after it was cleaned! The same with Lionel large scale wheels on the locomotives...made out of aluminum they would work today picking rail power but tomorrow would need cleaning...I gave up on those things.


That's interesting. I certainly don't want to start in on a project that is both costly and problematic. Although I'm wondering what type of aluminum you were using? I was planning on using 6063 aluminum instead of the standard 6061. The 6063 is only slightly more expensive but has far better corrosion resistance properties. 



CRH said:


> Stainless steel track is the best for outdoor use but the prices are in the stratosphere!! Polk's is up to something like $12 per foot.


So is brass, but even brass is about $6 a foot. Compare that with this aluminum track at only about $1.30 a foot. 

Cost differences for my ambitious railroads:

Stainless Steel - 500 feet X $12 per foot = $6000.00 worth of track. I'm not doing that. 

Brass - 500 feet X $6 per foot = $3000.00 worth of track. Still too costly for me. 

Aluminum - 500 feet x $1.30 per foot = $650 worth of track. Maybe within reach?

But now that you've mentioned battery operated R/C trains I could actually go with wooden track. And that would reduce the price to peanuts. I probably have enough wood already to make all the track I could ever dream of. I've got stacks of lumber in the back yard. Lots of cherry and oak and pine too. But for the rails I'd probably use strips of oak or cherry. 

I'm might try making up some wooden track to see how that goes. 

The big problem there would then be to convert all my trains to R/C radio control. That might not be too bad actually. 

I'll have to think about this. I'll have to make up some wooden track and see how that goes. If I go that route I might really get carried away since track would be next to FREE at that point.


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## Sweet Dreamer

@CRH,

You definitely have me thinking about battery operated R/C trains now. That would simplify so much. There would be no need for electrical wiring to the rails, no insulated track sections and all that hassle. Everything would be done right from the train itself. 

That's really the best way to go for sure. That will eliminate a lot of hard-wiring of the actual outdoor layout. The only thing that would need to be "wired in" would be the turnout controllers. But I'm planning on making those air-operated. They could also be R/C controlled. No need to run hard wiring for them either. I might even consider having several strategically located air tanks that I just fill up on occasion instead of air lines all over the place. I'd probably only need 2 or 3 air tanks. Just those small portable air tanks you can get at any auto parts store. I was thinking of having the air-operated turnouts in any case. 

I really like the idea of an R/C train now that you've brought this up. I could have a Raspberry Pi in each train with a Wi-Fi dongle for the R/C connection to my laptop. 

The Raspberry Pi already has PWM motor control outputs, so I'll have total control over the train direction and speed, and even be able to use computer programming to control it precisely. And the Raspberry Pi has tons of I/O pins left to control things like the lights on the train, and producing any sounds I care to make. It could even potentially control and operational cars I might have like dumping logs from a dump-able flat car for example. 

Now that you have me thinking about this, this is actually the only way to go. I'll have far more control over the trains and no need to worry about track-to-train electrical connections, and all that track wiring. 

Yep, you've convinced me! 

R/C it is! And that opens the door to wooden track! Super CHEAP!


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## Sweet Dreamer

Now that I have FREE track and super control over my trains I've gone completely INSANE!

Here's my new design. 

I added this yard at the top garden where I can park all my trains.  I'm even thinking I could make a shelter for them with a roof over and windows on the sides so I can park them in there on rainy days. 










Then at the bottom entrance I added another crossover bridge to connect the two separate railroads together. This is way beyond my wildest dreams.

And it probably will remain a dream forever. But it's fun to dream.


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## cristian

*pls stay with 1/2 x 1/8 aluminum*

Please, dont give up using 1/2 x 1/8 aluminum  I was thinking same thing and waiting your pictures from your project  Your post make me join to forum 

If you go to wood track. What are u doing for Rain Water x Wood track ?


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## Sweet Dreamer

cristian said:


> Please, dont give up using 1/2 x 1/8 aluminum  I was thinking same thing and waiting your pictures from your project  Your post make me join to forum
> 
> If you go to wood track. What are u doing for Rain Water x Wood track ?


I treat the wood. 

I'm definitely going with the wooden track. I've made up my mind. The savings in cost is simply to great to ignore. 

Also I'm sold on the operational flexibility of the battery-operated R/C trains. I won't need to worry about all the complex track wiring in sections, and all the relays I would need to control that. I've been working with wood for many years and wood actually holds up quite well. Plus the way I'm designing this, replacing rails will actually be quite easy. 

By the way, I'm using precisely the same design that I had intended to use with the metal rails. So my design can still be adapted for use with metal rails. I just won't be needing metal rails if I'm using battery-powered trains. So why bother with the extra expense? 

Here's some photos of some designs I've drawn up. This is just a simple straight sections of track. But this can be as long as you like. Curved sections will be built in a very similar way with a slight adjustment when it comes to cutting the slots for the rails. 

*STEP 1: Roadbed*

I start with a foundational roadbed board. This will be about 3/4' thick and approximately 5 or 6 inches in width. You can play with those dimensions to suit your preference or available lumber stock. 

This board can be painted, and or decorated to appear however you like. Covering it will track ballast would be fine. However, if you do this, either wait until you've attached the ties, or use a mask to keep bare wood where the ties will go so you can glue and nail them on in the next step. 









*STEP 2: Ties*

Cut the wooden ties to whatever size you like. I like larger ties so I'm going with ties about 1/2" square. This leaves plenty of room for a 1/4" rail slot without worrying about cutting the tie in half. I will be making my ties from white oak lumber. That's good for boat building so it should be durable for outdoor use too. 

I space my ties 1.5" apart which is larger spacing than scale, but with the larger ties it looks just fine. The pictures are drawn to my scale. 

Glue and nail the ties to the roadbed board BEFORE you slot them. You can slot them later using a table saw and this way the slots will be perfectly aligned even if the ties are not. In fact, this will allow you to place ties slightly randomly for a more realistic look.

Be sure to have at least one edge of your roadbed board perfectly flat because that will be what rides on the table saw fence when cutting the tie slots. Also be sure not to place any tie nails where the slots will be so you don't hit them with the table saw blade.

The Chairs will be added later with the rails. 










*STEP 3: Rails and Chairs*

Once the slots are in the ties the rails can be tapped into the slots. It doesn't need to be a perfect fit. But a nice snug fit would be best. Not too tight. 

Once the rails are tapped into place they can be secured by drilling a pilot hole at 45 degrees down through the Chair, Tie and Rail. Then tap in a track nail. I'm using nails intended for building bee hives.  I'll also be building a jig to hold a Dremel drill at the proper angle so I won't need to drill all these holes by hand. If you're using aluminum rails you can probably skip over several ties and just put nails in occasionally. With the wooden rails I'll probably put a spike in ever chair just because drilling through wood will be a snap. 

If you would like these nails to be easily removable take this into consideration and leave a tiny space between the head and the chair so you can pull them out easily if you need to change a rail. These "spikes" might actually look pretty cool sticking up a tad. Also if you are using aluminum rails you might even consider using small screws here instead of nails. That's up to you. 

Also, if you splice a rail do it on a tie slot. This way you can drive two nails through the chair. One nail to hold the end of each rail. This is probably how I'll be joining track sections since I don't need to worry about electrical connections. If you are using aluminum rails you'll probably need to connect them together with a piece of wire screwed onto each rail to insure a good electrical connection. 










*STEP 4: Add Rolling Stock*

If you are using track power you will need to have used metal rails instead of wooden rails in the previous step. You'll also need to deal with isolators where required. But this whole process should work just as well for metal rails. This was precisely how I had planned on building my track with aluminum rails. Moving over to using wooden rails is the only difference I made. I suppose I could use some kind of plastic rails too, but why not use wood? I already have plenty of wood. 










*End View*

The following is a drawing of the end view of the track after it's been assembled. 










~~~~~

*Note:* To do a curved section of track takes a bit more work. The roadbed and ties are assembled as above, but then to cut the rail slots instead of using a table saw a router is used with a 1/8" bit. I will also be building a router guide that can be set up to guide the router around a precise radius to cut the rail slots. Hopefully I'll be posting pictures later on how to build that router guide fixture. But that won't happen anytime soon. 

So even though I've decided to go with wooden rails you may still be able to use some of my design work. Just replace the wooden rails with aluminum rails, or whatever metal you choose to use.


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## Sweet Dreamer

Just because I can I thought I'd post a picture of the entire 8 foot long section of straight track. This includes both a side view and a top view with just a single bogie on the track. This is drawn to scale as I hope to build it. Ties are 1/2" square with 1.5" centers between them. The rails are standard G-scale, about 1.9" between centers. The roadbed board in this picture is 5" wide.


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## Sweet Dreamer

Today I drew up a "rough sketch" of a Right-hand Gauntlet Turnout. I still have some more work to do on this including work on the frog and the guard rails. It took me all day just to draw this much up. I'm still on a learning curve with Sketchup. 

I think I could have actually built this quicker in the shop. 










I plan on making several of these so I want to get this down to a science with jigs and everything to make mass producing them easy. Even if the "_mass production_" is for my own use. 

I could easily end up using a dozen or more of these. In fact, my proposed layout actually calls for about 15 turnouts not counting the super-ambitious "yard" that I drew up last. I think that would require a half a dozen turnouts on its own. 

I've decided to go with Gauntlet style turnouts since they will be the easiest to build to be sure.


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## cristian

Amazing !!
Very good! Thinking seriously follow your mind 
The project is getting very good .

Please show the basis of the production process , tie rails and chair when you are in the production workshop .


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## Sweet Dreamer

cristian said:


> Please show the basis of the production process , tie rails and chair when you are in the production workshop .


I'll try to do that. I have a good idea of how I'll fabricate everything already. But I will be making everything from wood including the rails. As I say the process should work for aluminum rails as well, but a few minor changes may need to be made in places. Also since my rails will be wood and not electrified I won't need to worry about keeping rails electrically isolated from each other. So I'll be taking advantage of that fact when building my turnouts and crossings. 

If you're going to follow this process using aluminum rails you'll need to keep alert for areas where my precise methods might end up shorting your rails together. I'm sure you can take care to avoid those shorts, but since I'll being using wooden rails I'll no longer need to worry about those kinds of details.


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## Sweet Dreamer

I probably should add that I also plan on using "stub" turnouts. This way I won't need to worry about tapering the ends of the switching rails. This is going to be a very basic workhorse layout. My trains will all be running at fairly slow speeds. I like slow moving trains.


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## Sweet Dreamer

Tonight I designed the router table for cutting the rail slots in the curved sections of track. It may need some refinements. And I'm open to any suggestions. This is just a quick rough draft, but it looks like it might do the job.


Router Tables Complete
This thing looks like some sort of medieval weapon of war, but I assure you it's just for cutting rail slots in ties of curved track sections. 

I've called out all the major parts. I discuss them individually in more detail below.










Base Board

We start with a foundational base board. In my case it's going to be a 2 x 8 piece of lumber. It only needs to be about 4 feet long in my case since my max radius will only be 2 feet. But if you're going to be using larger curves you'll need to make it longer. 

The only thing to take note here is that the pivot point should be raised up to the level of where the tops of your ties will be after they are attached to your roadbed board. You might also want to place a washer here or some other bearing surface since this will be the pivot of router arm. 










Clamping Arms

This part looks kind of crazy, but these are just pieces of wood being held in place to clamp your track to when routing it. The precise radius of the clamp holder isn't critical but it should be smaller than the minimum radius you expect to use. 










Radius Adjustment Arm

This next picture shows the fine tuning mechanism for the radius arm. All my curves will be very close to 24" radius. But if you plan on using different size curves you may need to redesign this part for more flexibility. 










Radius Adjustment Arm -2

These next two pictures show more details of how the radius adjustment works. You set your initial radius (starting on the outer most rail) using the fine adjustment knobs. You also control much of this with precisely where you actually clamp your baseboard and ties to the clamping arms as well.  In fact that's where most of the adjustments will actually be made. 

In practice you'll want to set the router at the start of a curve, then clamp that in place loosely. Then swing the router around to the other end of the curve and clamp that end in place too. You'll probably need to work back and forth at this until you get the two ends lined up with the router bit. The rest of the curve will take care of itself. These fine adjustment knobs just give you a little extra place to "tweak" things if needed. 

However, the real niffy part of this router table is that once you have the outer rail set, the inner rail will be automatically set by using the G-scale track spacers. 










Radius Adjustment Arm -3

This next picture shows how these track spacers work. Once you've cut the outside rail radius all you do is loosen the nut holding the G-scale Track Spaces in place, lift them out, move the router in to the washer they had previously rested on, and place them on the other side of the angle iron. Then just tight that inner nut back up snug and you should be set perfectly for cutting the parallel inner rail slot. 

At least that's how it's supposed to work in theory. 

Keep in mind that this is all a first-time project for me, so beware!

But I'm certainly open to suggestions and input if anyone had better ideas, and/or notices and major errors in my thinking. 










Random Perspective

This following is just another perspective view of the finished router table. By the way I plan on mounting this between two sawhorses outdoors when I use it. So you might want to make the length of base board long enough to give you "hangovers" on each end to clamp onto saw horses. 










Another thing too that you might take note of. I didn't make that clamp arm holding bracket a full 90 degrees in this drawing. I think I will actually make it a full 90 degrees when I build the actual table. In fact, it could even be made a full 180 or more if you wanted to make a single solid curve section that many degrees.

And of course, as I say, my drawing is made for 24" radius. That's really sharp turns. Some people don't like that. So if you're going to wide turns your fixture is going to look quite different in terms of proportions. 

I didn't put precise dimensions on these drawings because if anyone wants to build one of these they would be far better off considering the dimensions they might need to build the actual track they have in mind. 

By the way, if you'll be using aluminum or other metal rails you might still need a rail bender to preform your rails at least close to the radius that you cut here. But then these precise slots in these ties should then bring the finished rail to the precise curve you've cut. 

I'll be using thin wooden rails. They will probably bend enough on their own to just fit. I might need to steam them or wet them. I'm sure I can get them to fit one way or another.

*Just a note on the actual cutting operation:*

Once you get everything set up and clamped down. Run the router over the ties with the bit just barely touching them make sure that skim mark goes precisely where you expect it to go. 

Then set the bit deeper for the actual cutting. You'll already have time invested in having built the roadbed board and ties at this point. Don't want to mess that up. 

Also think of the thousands of G-scale lives that will be counting on you to build a perfectly safe railroad.


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## Sweet Dreamer

*UPDATE:* 

I decided to try cutting one of my turnouts on my router table. It's works pretty slick.

Because this turnout has two curves it will need to be set up twice for the two different curves to be cut. They are both the same radius (i.e. 24"), but they turn in different directions. 

First Cuts
The first ties can be cut in a direction that allows for the use of the clamping arm table. I just drew in some white lines to represent where the grooves will be cut. But these would be perfect curves and the rails will be perfectly parallel to each other. 










Second Cuts

For the second part of the curve I need to turn the turnout around and since it has a straight section sticking out this requires removal of the clamping arms. But this isn't a problem since these turnouts are only 2 feet long. So they can just be clamped directly to the router table base board. It should still work quite well. 










It looks like it's going to work. Only time will tell if the real thing pans out as nice as these drawings. 

It sure is nice to be able to draw this stuff up ahead of time though. Man this Sketchup program is AWESOME! This let's me get my thoughts right out there in a picture!


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## narrowgauge

@RonthePirate - A little additional information on the use of aluminum in large scale for trackage. Yes, aluminum oxidizes almost immediately when exposed to oxygen (and it makes up the largest part of the air we breathe). Aluminum is an excellent conductor, the oxides on the other hand are not. Aluminum is light weight, for rail purposes plenty strong, and for most people - easy to work (provided you don't need to solder or weld it). There are several companies that do or have manufactured aluminum track/rial. A thorough internet search will bring them up. Unfortunately one of the best sources just closed his doors due to health reasons. If you plan to use battery r/c operation, aluminum rail is a very inexpensive alternative, and the oxides that are a problem for track power are a positive here. The oxides are harder than the rail and will provide good traction.

@Sweet Dreamer - Although your concept is fairly sound, the implementation is going to be both daunting and a maintenance nightmare. Many years ago there was a manufacturer who extruded aluminum rail with a 'tang' on the bottom to slip into slots in ties just as you are planning. In implementation, the outer tie sections would split off due to the expansion of the wood when it got wet, it would shear off at the bottom of the groove for the rail tang.

Now to your design. Unless you are going to place all of your sub road bed planing on very good drainage of gravel, allowing the wood to sit directly on the soil - regardless of treatment - will generate rot fairly quickly. Attaching ties to the sub road bed after the sub road bed has been treated will only attach with mechanical fasteners. My experience is that most anti rot treatments contain an oil of some nature and not many adhesives will stick to it well. Based on your diagrams, I am assuming you are planning to use stub switches, which are OK, they were used on the prototype on some lines into the 1960's.

My personal opinion for what ever that is worth, if you wist to go with aluminum rail, find a vendor and purchase rail. It is my belief in the long run you will be happier with the result. Yes it will be more costly, but I think it will be more enjoyment if you do it right the first time and not spend half of your free time fixing what is broke.

I would also recommend spending some time on a couple of the dedicated large scale forums:

Large Scale Central (www.largescalecentral.com)
My Large Scale (www.mylargescale.com)
Bachmann Trains Online (http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php?board=6.0)

There are is a large contingent of experienced large scalers there (some from back when LGB first started importing in the late 1960's) who are always ready to provide answers to any questions you may have. Sometimes the answers may not be the ones you want to hear, but then again ......

My tuppence on the direction you are headed. Happy Railroading 

A note on using software for design.....the software lives in a perfect world, the garden does not. As me how I know that ......


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## Sweet Dreamer

narrowgauge said:


> Now to your design. Unless you are going to place all of your sub road bed planing on very good drainage of gravel, allowing the wood to sit directly on the soil - regardless of treatment - will generate rot fairly quickly.


Hi Narrowgauge, I want to thank you for your comments, but in particular for bringing up the above quoted point. My entire railroad will be elevated from ground level by at least 2 feet or more for the vast majority of the layout. I've become so used to thinking in terms of this elevated track layout that I totally forget to mention it. And I agree this is an important aspect of building with wooden roadbed, ties, and track. It's got to be kept up off the ground where it can drain and dry easily. So I should make that clear to everyone who might follow this project. 

*Note to anyone considering building wooden roadbed, ties and/or rails. Do not do this if you plan on laying your track on ground level. It will most likely suffer from water damage almost immediately. *

Also, if you go this route use a good rot-resistant wood. I'm using White Oak which has really good rot resistance. Don't use a wood that is known to rot out easily. I will also be water proofing it using Minwax staining oils. It will then be installed "high and dry" on elevated metal poles (old 2" gas line pipe) cemented into the ground.

I totally forgot to even mention this because I had been taking it for granted. I know that I will be elevating my track so I just put this out of my mind. But yes, if someone is considering doing the wooden track thing, you definitely want to elevate this up off the ground. The higher the better. As I say, mine will typically be elevated by at least 2 feet in most places. I do plan on having one track that descends down to "Ground level", but even that track will still be elevated by 2 to 4 inches off the ground. And I'll be keeping a close eye on that particular section potentially force drying it after any seriously wet weather. 

So Narrowgauge makes a very good point. Don't put this wooden roadbed directly on the ground or you'll be asking for problems. I totally forgot to mention that because I'm so used to thinking of my own plan which is well elevated. 

So yes, this is very important.


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## Volphin

This is a cool post AND project. 

It would be interesting to use teak for ties. It is a very oily wood that withstands the sun, wind and rain and does not rot. It will gray over time, but I have mitigated that with my teak using Star Brite Tropical Teak Oil Sealer. My swim platform has been in the elements for over a decade. The wood just becomes darker brown.


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## lapushkazaika

Hi. This is my project I am working on. I am using a brass strip 2x10.


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## Gramps

lapushkazaika said:


> Hi. This is my project I am working on. I am using a brass strip 2x10.


Welcome to the forum. You posted on a thread that has been dormant for 5+ years so you probably will not get a response. Old threads come up in the Recommended Reading often and new members pick up on them without checking the dates. You are not the first person this happened to and you will not be the last but continue to show us your work.


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## Matison

I know that this is an old article and that I may not receive any response, but it’s worth a shot:

Was this layout was successfully built, and if so, which parts worked, which did not work?

I am in the planning and initial building stages of constructing a Garden Railway. I’m working on smaller pieces over the fall/winter, and outdoor work will start in the spring. I’m hoping to not repeat mistakes that others have done, and hopefully benefit from lessons learned, etc…


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## REdington

You might be better served if you started a new thread. But I'll answer

One thing I did learn when I hand spiked 40 some turnout, is don't use wood for the ties. With all the freeze and thaw cycles, the spikes push out. I ended up using composite deck stuff for ties and they have survived for over 10 years now. 2nd is make sure you have a good base to lay track


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