Hello everyone,
This is my first post,and have a lot to say. January of 2004 i decided to build my HO layout outdoors.After 13 years with the large scale,and loving every minute of it,being out in the fresh air and still enjoying my hobby.I started a 4x8 layout
with two 18" loops,and a 15" loop. The sides of the platform ,has 12" hi pieces of plexiglass. The top was covered with two 4x4 removable pieces of plexiglass.Now i was protected from the elements. I am in bayshore,(long island) n.y. Then i erected a 10’ x10’ canopy over the layout.Last month i added another 4x8 extension,this is untill i purchase another canopy (seasonl item),
When the weather looks bad,i place a vinal tarp over the second half.
I decided to leave the power packs and all the rolling stock ,including the locos ,out in the original section which is more protected. After eleven
months ,everything is still working fine.The knickle silver rails do oxidize a little
faster than normal ,the dust is about the same.Last nite it snowed,a little snow
got in the area,because i didnt put the plexi covers on. The streets and building were covered with a frosting,that i couldn’t produce if i tried.
The next three months will be the real test,with the weather .So far the canopy
survived a 53 mph wind,i tied it down real good after that.
I will have spent a good six hours a day working on it ,up till today. The temperature today was 17degrees f, so i went to the hobby shop and purchesed a athearn gp-38-2 diesel.And stayed in for the rest of the day.
I’ve always liked the idea of running trains outdoors but haven’t had the opportunity. The large scale trains we usually see and their large costs have always been a discouraging factor. It’s interesting to hear about your outdoor HO layout. What part of the world are you located?
It’s 18 below here now, scheduled to get colder than last night’s 22 below with about 8 inches of fresh snow so it’s a little odd to be thinking about running trains outdoors. But I have a large picture window by my desk in my office and I often think about watching trains running around out there, maybe through a light dusting of snow.
[#welcome] joe, Sounds like you might have this outdoor thing figured out pretty well. I wouldnt leave my engines and cars outside myself, but hey, if they still run fine then why not. As for the oxidizing track, do you have a track cleaning car? If not i would advise getting one. You can get several different types depending on how much you want to spend. I find that if you clean your track thouroughly and run a few cars with $4 kits to cenvert them to track wipers, the track stays pretty clean. So long as you sand the layer of dirt of every so often. I also have a car that i built with a brite boy attached to the bottom much like the track wipe kits. I dont run it very often as it would wear down the track, not to mention the little shavings that seem to be attracted to loco gearboxes[xx(]. But its good to run it around a couple of times when your track gets very dirty. Easier than rubbing a brite boy all around. good luck and happy railroading.
P.S.- I would like to see some pictures of your layout if you wouldnt mind posting them.
I’ve been waiting for someone brave(or bizarre enough ) to do H.O. outdoors WHY NOT??? I thought I was going insane as I believed I was the only one ever to think about this, hope this trend becomes common, I did read somewhere about a guy who cut a small door in his house and ran the track outside around his back yard on top of his fence, maybe that’s what has stuck in my mind all these years. This subject has lots of appeal, but of course we shall hear from all the naysayers who never thought about it. This could bring back some great revival of snow removal equipment, I can already see that plume of snow shooting into the neighbors yard from that mean looking rotary now!!! (sorry all you guys in the tropical U.S.)
Those who live in warmer climes have other problems–while snow isn’t a worry in the Central Valley, in summer we’d have to worry about plastic flex-track ties melting!
Wow, heck of an area you live in to even attempt this. Great that you got it all to work, and continue working.
I do recall someone did you one better, they built an outdoor N scale layout, but that was in California. It was in a 1974 or 75 issue of Railroad Modeler (yes, Railroad Modeller, NOT RMC) and was a model of the open pit Kennecott Copper Mine. And it got pretty much washed away by some uncommon rain (it never rains in Southern California? Not until you build an outdoor train layout, anyway…). Sick…
Hmm, my one basement window is right at ground level, which is right at the current layout height…a simple spur out to the yard… omg, the wife would kill me…
i had OO/HO outdorrs for many years.
the biggest problem was not rain or snow but the sun light making the ties go brittle. if i were to do it again, i would go for 0-16.5 track as it has the same rails but is much chunkier. but electrics were never a problem.
you got me thinking outside the box again[^], this sounds like a terrific job - Congrats!!
an outdoor - “indoor” (okay, … “covered”) railroad. You’re a better man than me.
and I was all set to tell you that Tonka belongs outside while Hotwheels belong inside … [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D] - so much for that theory.