I recently retired and found that after 2 weeks I was crawling up the walls. Amazing how after 50 years of working, I found it very difficult to "relax" for days on end.
Anywho,
My Son-In-Law asked me if I wanted to get a G-Scale Garden train back up and running where he works as the maintenance Director. It had not been run in years and the locomotives were mostly non functional. The best one had only 2 of the four wheels turning on the the front truck. The layout is an elevated (1 - 2 feet off the ground) that is supported by 4x4 posts with a 2x6 bed (in the straight sections. the curves are double stacked 3/4 plywood cut out to form the curves) on top for the track. It was so bad in spots I could push my finger right into and almost through the wood. The tracks have many ground down/cupped out sections from the last person in charge of the train constantly running the dilapidated locomotives with only 2 out of the 8 wheels actually driving so the resulting spin from the drive wheels cut into the rails.
So While I like to tinker and find out how stuff works, (I was a mechanic for 15 years and 27 years as a site manager who maintained a 225 acre facility with multiple year round and 3 season buildings) my model/scale train knowledge is limited to what I learned in my early years with a basic Lionel train setup.
So while I am THRILLED at the chance to get this system back up and functioning, I am a bit apprehensive about the whole project. I know I will need the knowledge and experiences of the members of this forum. As a first question: What is the maximum grade a G-scale can climb? Right now the layout is an over and under spread out across 50 feet so the grade is pretty gradual. There is a section that runs along the back that is not connected to the main layout and it is about a foot higher than the over section and almost 2 feet higher than the under section. My concern is I would have to make the transition in less than 15 feet on either end and I don't know how well the train would handle that, especially with multiple (6+) cars.
There has been a lot of excitement over the train getting back up and running. So far I have gotten 1 GP38 diesel locomotive fully functional and I am replacing the track section by section so the train can keep running everyday rather than tear down the whole thing and have it out of commission while I repair/rebuild 100+ feet of train track and support structure.
Thank you everyone in advance!
Anywho,
My Son-In-Law asked me if I wanted to get a G-Scale Garden train back up and running where he works as the maintenance Director. It had not been run in years and the locomotives were mostly non functional. The best one had only 2 of the four wheels turning on the the front truck. The layout is an elevated (1 - 2 feet off the ground) that is supported by 4x4 posts with a 2x6 bed (in the straight sections. the curves are double stacked 3/4 plywood cut out to form the curves) on top for the track. It was so bad in spots I could push my finger right into and almost through the wood. The tracks have many ground down/cupped out sections from the last person in charge of the train constantly running the dilapidated locomotives with only 2 out of the 8 wheels actually driving so the resulting spin from the drive wheels cut into the rails.
So While I like to tinker and find out how stuff works, (I was a mechanic for 15 years and 27 years as a site manager who maintained a 225 acre facility with multiple year round and 3 season buildings) my model/scale train knowledge is limited to what I learned in my early years with a basic Lionel train setup.
So while I am THRILLED at the chance to get this system back up and functioning, I am a bit apprehensive about the whole project. I know I will need the knowledge and experiences of the members of this forum. As a first question: What is the maximum grade a G-scale can climb? Right now the layout is an over and under spread out across 50 feet so the grade is pretty gradual. There is a section that runs along the back that is not connected to the main layout and it is about a foot higher than the over section and almost 2 feet higher than the under section. My concern is I would have to make the transition in less than 15 feet on either end and I don't know how well the train would handle that, especially with multiple (6+) cars.
There has been a lot of excitement over the train getting back up and running. So far I have gotten 1 GP38 diesel locomotive fully functional and I am replacing the track section by section so the train can keep running everyday rather than tear down the whole thing and have it out of commission while I repair/rebuild 100+ feet of train track and support structure.
Thank you everyone in advance!
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.....SWMBO says that too many of them are happening. I say that I live in my own little world, but it's okay, they know me there.....
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