New Member With Trainline 45 Questions

P

Patrik

Registered
Hi!
I just signed up. I'm in the planning stage for a new garden railway. The small one that I teared up a couple of years ago had sectional tracks, LGB R1 curves and turnouts. The new one I'm planning for will have flex track and bigger radius turnouts. I have already ordered two Piko R7 turnouts that I will try out before ordering some more.

Then the other day I see these TrainLine tracks and turnouts on ebay and online shops. So I would like to know more of the TrainLine stuff, how is the quality compared to the other brands? Long term use outside and UV resistance (I live in Sweden)? The turnouts, how good are those compared with other brands?

I don't know yet if I can use any of the TrainLine turnouts because I think I will go for a minimum radius of 1,5m and the ones Trainline offers are 1,2m and 2,1m, one to small and the other maybe to big. I will see what I and Anyrail can fit in the 10x10m area I have for the railway, and maybe I will have to settle for 1,2m minimum radius instead.

Patrik
 
I have been using TL Points and Track outside in UK for some time now with no ill effects. Pretty well perfect compatibility with LGB, though the Fishplates are different they do Join up OK. If you want to use the Live Frogs, a weak point are the Micro Switches that are used for changing current to the Frog. However, they do take a long time to cause problems. I use Peco Track mostly with Live Frog Conversion and use Micro Switches. I think that around 3 or 4 out of 30 or so have failed in the 15 Years or so that they have been outside. The other thing about TL Points is that you sometimes get some nasty Bumps with LGB Wheels. But a little tweaking can resolve these issues. Certainly not enough issues to stop you buying TL Track.
JonD
 
dunnyrail said:
I have been using TL Points and Track outside in UK for some time now with no ill effects. Pretty well perfect compatibility with LGB, though the Fishplates are different they do Join up OK. If you want to use the Live Frogs, a weak point are the Micro Switches that are used for changing current to the Frog. However, they do take a long time to cause problems. I use Peco Track mostly with Live Frog Conversion and use Micro Switches. I think that around 3 or 4 out of 30 or so have failed in the 15 Years or so that they have been outside. The other thing about TL Points is that you sometimes get some nasty Bumps with LGB Wheels. But a little tweaking can resolve these issues. Certainly not enough issues to stop you buying TL Track.
JonD
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Thank you for your input Jon. I think I will pull the trigger on Trainline track. What kind of tweaking on the points have to be done? Because I have some LGB rolling stock.
 
Very little, just a bit of 10thou Plasticard in the Gap to stop the Flanges Dropping and some slight filing ogpf the Metal Frogs. Somewhere her I did a post of the changes both showing before n after but cant find it. To be honest the changes are so irrelevant I would not worry. Most would not even bother as the running upis fine with both LGB and Bachmann Metal Wheels that are the only ones I use in Rolling Stock.

So I suggest you unpul the Trigger. TL Track is just fine.
JonD
 
dunnyrail said:
Very little, just a bit of 10thou Plasticard in the Gap to stop the Flanges Dropping and some slight filing ogpf the Metal Frogs. Somewhere her I did a post of the changes both showing before n after but cant find it. To be honest the changes are so irrelevant I would not worry. Most would not even bother as the running upis fine with both LGB and Bachmann Metal Wheels that are the only ones I use in Rolling Stock.

So I suggest you unpul the Trigger. TL Track is just fine.
JonD
Click to expand...



That sounds very doable, I have been working on Peco On30 and HO switches before, making them dcc friendly by cutting gaps and soldering on wires.
 
And I'll be damned if I can work out how to move it..... hmm, there must be a way.
 
OK, So the move has been successful after a bit of finangling - but the posts are now interspersed with the previously extant posts. So posts 3,5, 7 and 9 have just been moved here from a thread in the Shopwatch section - that is my previous post, Greg's two posts and Ross's post. Although the sequencing is a bit peculiar as a result I'm going to leave all the posts in play; Greg's first one because it contains useful stuff and the other three for completeness.
 
Hullo Patrik and welcome to the forum.

I have a couple of the TL R2 points which I used successfully with LGB R2 curves.

I did find that I couldn't use an LGB point motor on them, so I brought the TL one (which also had the advantage of being DCC ready).

Quality IMO is the same as LGB or PIKO....
 
Thank you Gizzy for your input too about the TL points. Dcc ready point motors sounds fine. I think I will start without point motors and walk with the train and with the help of a stick do the switching manually. The biggest issue right now in my decision about points is the fact that TL doesn't have points with 5' radius. Yesterday I got two Piko R7 points delvered home with 5' radius and it feels spot on with that radius size. The TL point with 4' radius I think is to tight radius, at least on the main. And the TL point with 7' radius feels like it is to big on my confined space. The biggest grief about the Piko points is that it has big plastic frogs with stainless contact strips on the bottom. My smallest engines, a LGB Porter and a Stainz run fine through the points now when new and inside, but with some dirt on that strip I belive it could be problems.
 
Maybe your best option is to use PIKO track Patrik? Don't know how easy it is to obtain in Sweden. Or like myself, go with LGB. I've had mainly LGB outdoors for 15 years, and a lot of that was purchased 2nd hand. I also had some Aristocraft track as well as the TL45 points I mentioned.

I should think PIKO will be easier to obtain than TL45, as they are a much larger manufacturing concern. I believe TL45 are the only ones producing a point with a live frog though.

Once you do your track plan with Any Rail you will soon see what compromises you might have to make....
 
Unfortunately is all kind of G scale stuff at scarce here in Sweden, very few dealers have it in stock. So I order everything from Germany, Netherlands or US instead. I think I will go for 1,5m lengths of TL flex track ( I have ordered the Massoth railbender already) and probably Piko R7 points then ( not totally sure yet). I have made a track plan already in Any rail and everything seams to fit in my 10x10 m space. The space is actually a couple of meters bigger so I have space to move around the layout.

Sketch63152755.png
 
Interesting track plan Patrik.

And US themed it seems?

There are one or two on the forum here that have really nice US layouts....
 
Yes, and lots of water - should look great.:)
 
Thanks Gizzy and Stockers.
Yes it is a US theme on this railway, logging and mining around the imaginary Frost creek.
I will make another thread about the planned layout later, but it seems like there is no separate category named for example, " My railway" where members can post about their layouts.
 
Use the 'pictures ' section.
 
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