If necessary to do, can HO gage layouts be placed outdoors and trains run on them successfully. My best site is outdoors on the patio on a small site that HO would scale to better than G scale would.
I could take the rolling stock indoors or park it under cover. But could the track, switches, and other electrical current carrying mechanism be used out doors where they may get wet?
Has anyone done this successfully?
Appreciate your input.
there was an MR article about HO outdoors, but had covers when not operating.
as far as the track and switches themselves, they could probably be kept outside. You’d have to clean the dirt out every now and then, but the switch machines might pose a problem. I’m not sure whether or not electric or pneumatic will either one stand up to wet.
Greg
Aha, I can answer this one! Yes, HO can be used outdoors BUT there are several important caveats that need to be taken into consideration:
1: Most HO scale plastics are not UV compatable. Peco track is, but locos and rolling stock, structures etc are not. It is important and makes a difference. UV light will rip plastic to shreds in a short time without protection.
2: Physics. Every little leaf or gust of wind will blow your train off the track. You would have to weight each peice of rolling stock quite a bit, so expect to use M.U. or fewer cars in a train. Prepare for frequent derailments.
3: Rain, birds, animals, leaves, bugs, and other 1:1 scale real world issues. Even in G scale these can cause problems, multiply by a factor of 500 on the irritating scale for HO. HO loco motors and drives are not weather sealed and every peice of dirt will find it’s way into the gearing.
4: All your electrical items would have to be easily detachable and brought inside when not in use. HO power packs and switch machines are simply not designed for outdoor use.
5: Prepare for some seriously filthy track at the begining of each operating session. Slugs leave a film, and dirt loves train tracks.
Now, with all that said, there are several very succesful HO layouts in the world today and I would never try to deter anybody from experimenting and learning. I would recommend not doing this as the technical problems are not easily overcome and it could easily overwhelm a beginer’s knowledge and patience.
You might be surprized at how much G scale (with 4ft radius curves) can fit into a corner or around a tree or bush! Why not buy a Bachmann Big Hauler set at an after Christmass discount sale (junk the B’mann track and buy Aristo-craft for outdoor use) and give G scale a try?
if you were to do a outdoor layout, I would cover it up with something to cut downon the cleanig. You can get painting drop clothes out of very thin, lightweight plastic that woudl great. Keep all the dust off and out of the track and scenery. Just a thought.
Hi guys,
Boy am I glad I saw this thread. The only option for me is an outdoor layout on my covered pation which is 10ftx9ft or about 90 sq ft. I have already planned on covering it, but there are other things I was not aware of. I appreciate the help.
Chris
Hello
I had to reply to this topic, just to help prove that it can be done, I guess in many cases it dependson your Climate, where you are from etc etc.
I live in England (south east) and We run an 00 gauge Garden Railway, and have done for about 3 years now. (Of course for those of you that don’t know our 00 Gauge is more or less the same as your HO gauge!)
Take a look at my site, you might gain a few Ideas, and learn from some of our mistakes before you make some!
Sure they can. I forget where, but I saw a comment on a larger scale being used outside running over dirty and rusty track never missing a beat. It was on this forum, I think rrinker was the author. The title was How much power is too much, or something like that. One of the responses said that they used a large capacity power pack that enabled them to run in those conditions. Electricity doesn’t know what size your trains are, so I’m sure that same approach would work for HO as well. I have no doubt that you would need to clean the rails every once in a while, though. The thing would be finding track, structures and rolling stock that can deal with prolonged exposure to ultra violet light. You could solve the structure problem by scratchbuilding from quality wood. If you like scratchbuilding, you could build rolling stock, too. Regular HO track, structures and rolling stock wouldn’t hold up worth snot, as mentioned before.