Anyone make their own track?


AyTrane

AyTrane

Member
I have been tempted to make my own track, due to the high cost of current track. I have stopped at several home improvement stores and came across four foot strips of steel roughly the same size as G rail, maybe a little taller. The cost is about $3.50 a piece (making a four foot section of track cost roughly $7). To me this would be a lot cheaper than paying $32 for the same thing. I was wondering what other people use for their homemade track? Everytime I do a search I come across people that found actual rail somewhere, and have used that.

I'm not too concerned with realism as the points where I would be putting the track are not to subject to be seen, or in areas where the realism is shot anyway (along the fence line). I think I'll do some experimentation with the stuff, and see if it is worth a darn. What I'm really wondering about is how well it will hold up in the elements. I can handle a little corrosion, but full out rusting is no good!
 
I have a buddy that lays his own track. G-scale in the yard and HO in the house. But he has more time on his hands than many. Slow process, and that's a fact. I just buy mine on eBay. MUCH cheaper. I just bought 80' of G-scale track and a transformer for $45 and $12 shipping, can't beat that with a stick. Lucky I guess.

Bob
 
Any kind of steel is going to rust in the outdoors, even galvanized steel will rust over time. Cad plated steel takes longer(on bolts, screws, nuts, washers) but the price would be tooo high if you could find some. Stainless steel will even rust if you have another piece of steel laying against it. Aluminum oxidizes after awhile in diff. climate changes such as water, sand or hot sun.
I've been a metal art sculpture designer & maker for quite a few years & have worked w/all diff. kinds of metal including copper & brass. Stainless steel is the best metal for the outdoors for upkeep. Brass will cause a lot of problems in the outdoors w/upkeep.
 
I'm not in G scale but I keep in touch with a buddy of mine in California who has a farily large G scale "layout" running through about an acre of redwoods. He's fought the battle of track power for years and used just about every kind of metal you can think of. As Larry said, they all eventually deteriorate and become giant pain when you're trying to keep 1800 real feet of track clean. He finally has switched over to RC motors powered by rechargeable batteries, using radio control to run his trains. The track condition no longer matters. I guess you could use plastic rails if that's what you wanted. Apparently this is becoming a trend in outdoor railroads. There's a neat site at http://www.mv.com/ipusers/rcs/index.shtml that goes into how to convert standard G scale trains into R/C trains.
 
Adam I googled and came up with a bloke in NZ that makes his own track out of 12 x 3mm aluminum. To join the track (pieces) together he uses 3mm angle pop riveted. Seems like a lot of work though. He made some points from the same stuff as well.
 
I had some aluminum track out side, and it rusted pretty badly. I have a few spots where the track crosses a water feature, and the rest is low to the ground and gets wet when I water the garden. I think the water just stays on the the track afterward.
 
Not sure what I'm going to use for rail but I will be using battery power so rust will be kept at bay by running trains sort of like the prototype.
 
Adam, you don't change batteries. They are rechargeable and you either have electrical connections outside to plug in the locomotives to recharge overnight or bring them inside and plug them in. My friend claims he gets four hours running time from pulling an average size train. There are some fast recharge batteries that can be bought back up to full power in about two hours. The rechargeable batteries will have to be replaced at some point but they are usually good for about 500 recharges so that's probably about five years for an average locomotive.
 
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