[Brian Considine]

Don't know about B & Q's little misfortune but I have had a garden railway for about 15 years, starting with O Gauge.

I gave up on the O Gauge as the price of a decent locomotive in O far exceeded the cost of an equivelent LGB one ! For the garden it's purely for fun & enjoyment - no rivet counting of any sort here - NG loco's pull SG stock & vice versa also a mix of North American & European.

The track is all brass with soldered & bonded joints. I run it all the year round usually for at least an hour a day (keeps the track clean on it's own !). Bearing in mind the track is all ground level it runs very, very well. It's now running on DCC using a Lenz LH100.

One train is left outside perminantly so the weathering is the real thing.

Only a few things stop it running, if the wind is too high & blows the stock off the track, the snow gets too deep or frogs (the four legged kind) on the track. They get stunned & stop the train so they are soon spotted & gently put back in the pond seemly to no ill effect.

A trader friend of mine who specialises in garden railways told me that most of his LGB stock has all flown out the door & sales of Bachmann have gone up - but that is probably due to LGB's problems.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (BRITHO @ 9 Jul 2007, 16:03) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>What about cats in the tunnel, ant nests in the station, and idiot friends accidentally shorting the current with their watches!!

Regards

John

Well, they are all on about the same intellectual level, although I think the ant's may be ahead.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (goedel @ 9 Jul 2007, 20:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>What about leaves on the line in Autumn?

You just need to set the correct CV values and hopefully you should be able to revive them with your DCC handset!!

Goedel

No leaves in my garden - all the small trees are evergreens !

The frogs will not work properly with the Lenz - I think they have come from a certain place just across the fields from me - maybe if I Select them individually or maybe they are an Elite breed !

 

[Brian Considine]

Nice link Dan - makes mine look a bit naff

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Dennis David @ 10 Jul 2007, 14:31) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>In California we have summers.

Ah - but we don't have earthquakes (well very, very few anyway) & best of all no GWB either !

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Dan Hamblin @ 12 Jul 2007, 16:04) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>You need something similar to those 'flail' tanks that were used during the Normandy offensive to clear minefields. Mount one of those on a truck and push it in front of the locomotive - hey presto! Slugs gone

Alternatively you could get a second hand Tri-ang snowplough model.

Regards,

Dan

Don't know if this is practical but my wife has put crushed egg shells round the plants that slugs & snails have attacked & they just will not cross the stuff - maybe you could try using it on the bounderies where they are a problem.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (60134 @ 12 Jul 2007, 17:56) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Does the higher current in DCC tracks help? Maybe you just need to enrgise the track at night with 20 + amps!

60134

That could be a possibility - because I leave one loco out on the tracks 24/7 I leave it powered up all the time (22v @ 5a) with the lights on - just enough to keep damp out of it, bearing in mind we have the worlds supply of snails in the back garden we don't seem to have this problem on the track !