# Newby



## Seans_World (Aug 14, 2009)

Hi everyone my name is Sean and my wife Valarie and I have just put down our first setup of G Scale around our water feature in the back yard. So far the dimensions are roughly 6'x16'x7' and we are running a Bachmann set until we get things moving along further and look at going into Live Steam. Hope to pick up lots of ideas on here and further inhance our knowledge base of the modeling world of G scale trains.
Thanks ahead of time for any help or input we gaine from all of you on here.I do have a video of the setup on Facebook and Flickr, will look and see if the is a way to post it here too. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seans_world/ Sean


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Welcome aboard Sean and Valarie, you'll make many good friends here. 

There is a great deal of information tucked into the pages here, have a look round. 

There are no stupid questions here, so ask away as the need rises. 

John


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Welcome Sean.... it's a great hobby!

Remember in the beginners forum there are no dumb questions.

Might I suggest my FAQ section on www.elmassian.com ? I would appreciate comments on anything missing or desired.

I would also suggest George Schreyer's site that inspired me "into" the hobby: http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips.html

Regards, Greg


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks like you keep yourself very busy!


No dumb questions? I could remedy that!


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Welcome to MLS Sean. 

While there are no dumb questions here, beware of the dumb answers 

Randy


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## CCSII (Jan 3, 2008)

"roughly 6'x16'x7'" 

You are either running some very tall trains or you have excruciating grades somewhere, what give? (always hungry for more info!)


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Welcome, Sean & Valerie!









Don't be afraid to ask questions. This is a pretty friendly board.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Les on 14 Aug 2009 06:44 PM 
Welcome, Sean & Valerie!









Don't be afraid to ask questions. This is a pretty friendly board.


It sure is... Just look at that smile in Les's Avitar! (Well, I am not too sure of that usage of "pretty" as an adjective... I assume he is intending it to modify the word "friendly" as opposed to an indication of the visual aspect of most of the members here... well... some of them... well, a few... well... one... uh... me).

Oh, yeah... like the others have said... welcome.


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## GG (Jan 1, 2009)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 14 Aug 2009 08:02 PM 
Posted By Les on 14 Aug 2009 06:44 PM 
Welcome, Sean & Valerie!









Don't be afraid to ask questions. This is a pretty friendly board.


It sure is... Just look at that smile in Les's Avitar! (Well, I am not too sure of that usage of "pretty" as an adjective... I assume he is intending it to modify the word "friendly" as opposed to an indication of the visual aspect of most of the members here... well... some of them... well, a few... well... one... uh... me).

Oh, yeah... like the others have said... welcome.



Sean, 

Now you have met Semper. 

Nick, you may or have not met yet. 

Welcome to this fun place of trains. This attached to many .... 

Well you can finish that last one..  










gg


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## GG (Jan 1, 2009)

Posted By Les on 14 Aug 2009 06:44 PM 
Welcome, Sean & Valerie!










Don't be afraid to ask questions. This is a pretty friendly board.


Is this the fat and plump younger and verile older man who subbed his avitar out for a smiling dog? 

gg


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Welcome--two years ago I was an absolute and total beginner. I learned A TON of useful info here. It's a lot of fun.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Posted By GG on 14 Aug 2009 08:31 PM 
Posted By Les on 14 Aug 2009 06:44 PM 
Welcome, Sean & Valerie!









Don't be afraid to ask questions. This is a pretty friendly board.


Is this the fat and plump younger and verile older man who subbed his avitar out for a smiling dog? 

gg

'Fat, plump, _younger_ and virile _older_ man'? Which is it? Now, I was rather taken by that grinning dog. "Vulpine", leaps to mind. Yep, that's me, Ol' Vulp.

You can see Sean, from GG's post, sobriety is no requirement for posting.







A sense of humor will take you a long way, too.

Ol Vulp


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## Joe McGarry (Jan 4, 2008)

Welcome aboard this wonderful hobby. I'm a newcomertoo, been at it about two years now.
Found these forums to be my very best source for information and ideas for outdoor railroading. Had a lot of fun here and made some friends along the way.

Hope you folks have as much fun as I have had and best wishes on your new hobby

Joe


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## Seans_World (Aug 14, 2009)

Thank you everyone for the welcome. It has been a fun hobby so far and with endless possibilities I can see after looking around that anything is possible with a bit of creativity, imagination and work as with most things. Our setup dimensions I should have specified are 6'wide on the west end 18' long and 7'wide on the east end. 
Sean


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Beware of that "Torby" guy. When somebody asks how to disassemble something, he usually suggests explosives. Don't follow that advice


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

Hay I love that name!!








Welcome to the insanity!!!
Once you post pics I think you cancell out the newbee title.








Welcome
Another Sean


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Sean: Welcome aboard. Let the fun begin and the trains run. Later RJD


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Welcome to the monkey house! (I think Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book by that title, but it sorta suits here too  ) I think you'll find these guys to be mostly friendly, and very helpful - if somewhat opinionated and occasionally, what's the word?


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## Seans_World (Aug 14, 2009)

Well thank you all for the welcome again, lately I have been trying to read as much information as I can get my hands on, even pruchased a few items like a western red cedar building kit, some more red cedar to start a trestle bridge, and Val bought us a couple of figures too. Also been trying to find the gardner snake that is calling our tunnel home. I do not have a problem with the snake but Val sure does,LOL. I have noticed that there really does not seem to be many books out there on the large scale trains like I would have thought. If anyone has some suggestions on them by all means let me know, thanks. As time goes on I will be asking about converting over to DCC and all those good questions but first I want to continue the building of our layout. 
Sean 

Oh yeah almost forgot to reply to the other Sean, it is the correct and best way to spell our name!!!


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

ONLY WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Sean,
welcome to MLS!
I just took a look at the video of your Garden RR..looks great!
one thought that came to mind, that you might not have considered..

You said you have 6' wide on one end and 7' wide on the other..
one "oft-quoted" idea for Garden RR design is "always make your curves as wide as you possibly can"!
this will help with train operation..

right now it looks like you have 4-foot diameter curve sections on one end, with a piece of straight track in the middle..
you could in theory remove the straight section and make a 6' diameter curve!
I understand you are probably using "snap track" sections, which is why you designed it that way..which makes sense..
to chage it, you would need flex track, or buy wider curve sections, or bend out the sharper curves..

(im going to try an experiment where im planning to re-bend a whole bunch of 8' diameter curves out to 12' diameter, with a rail bender..
I will post about it when I try it)

yes, its probably not _absolutely_ necessary that you do this..especially if you only plan to run the big hauler and smaller locomotives..
but if you ever want other locos, or longer cars, then wider curves will be a definate bonus..
(many locomotives, especially diesels, require 8' diameter *minimum* curves!)

just something to keep in mind..for future reference..
wider curves = better, more relaible operation, looks better, and allows a greater variety of rolling stock and locos to be run.

Scot


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## dltrains (Jan 2, 2008)

Sean and Valerie welcome aboard. 
Just to get some riled in order to answer your question on book availability no there aren't many. Might be because it's hard to give specific info on scale when there are an assortment of scales. I've found that prototype books and the online forums contain a wealth of info, more than likely more than any one of us will ever use. 
Ask away. I'm sure that someone on here could even give you an accurate description for modeling an operating room ( to keep it safe ) as an example. 

Dave


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Welcome to the friendly rails of MLS. I can only second what Scot says. Go with the largest radius curve that you can, you won't regret it. My first outdoor railroad in Colorado (1984 through 1993) had LGB 1500 (5' diameter) on one loop and LGB 1600 ( about 8' diameter) on the other loop. By the time we moved to Virginia (1993) the engines and cars were getting longer and longer. The railroad I built here has Aristocraft 10' diameter curves. I wish that I had built it with 20' diameter curves. The USAT streamliners look a little funny entering and leaving the 10' curves. I have converted all of my switches to LGB 1800s (about 17' diameter on the diverging curve). 

Another piece of advice that I give to those just starting out is make any passing sidings twice as long as you think that you will currently need! All that sunshine and fresh air seems to make garden railways grow at an amazing rate as new rolling stock becomes available and your interests evolve. 

The combined membership of MLS has probably made every mistake possible. You will be lucky to come up with a new one. I don't think, fortunately, that any one of us has made all of them. Take advantage of the people here and ask questions. There are a lot of dumb questions out there, but those are the ones that didn't get asked. 

Chuck N


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I think the single best piece of advice is to figure out the "story" of your railway. What is its history? What happens on it--where do people live, where do they work, what goods are shipped? What year is it? Where is it? Obviously there's no need to be obsessive about it, but just figuring out your story narrows the questions down. And then your railways just looks more coherent--it makes more sense, it just looks right.

For example, we started with a bunch of inherited stuff and I just made as interesting a trackway as I could manage through our existing garden. When I started to buy rolling stock, I went for US standard gage, mid-twentieth century, and bought the biggest locos I could afford. But then I realized that track was too tight--the eight foot curves I'd designed in because they seemed really big were much too small. So now the story is about a small local standard gage branch line, and Ive been downsizing the locos, from Pacifics and Mikados to Atlantics and consols. 


Whatever your story is, I say think of a good story and stick with it, at least for a while 


And I
d agree that most of the time bigger radius is better but there are some absolutely wonderful and charming railways designed around really tight curves--think industrial and mining lines, local rattletraps that wind in and out of small spaces. That can be just as interesting as grand sweeping mainlines. Check this out, the Daisy Beach line:


http://home.cogeco.ca/~daisybeach/


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Sean and Valerie: 

As Mike (lownote) said, build something with which you are happy and don't think that you are locked into your track plan. Over the years, I have made many modifications in my layouts. If it is necessary you may want take it out and start over. It is painful at the time, but you will be happier. 

Overall I think that Nancy and I are operating a combination of functioning railroad and a railroad museum. Being a museum and a short line, you can run anything. For example, a while back someone ask me why I was pulling a string of Duluth Missabi and Iron Range ore cars with a B&O mallet and trailed by a B&O caboose? My answer is that it had been a long cold winter in Minnesota and the harbors were still frozen when my nonexistent steel mill needed iron ore. The only solution was a unit train that switched engines and crew in Chicago. 

When I'm running my 1:29 trains I have a short line in the east (mostly B&O), for freight that goes to a steel mill (somewhere out of sight), the railroad also doubles as a tourist railroad that runs vintage passenger cars (40s and 50s). When running 1:20.5, I'm in the Colorado Mountains in the 40s and early 50s. Occasionally I bring out my older LGB meter gauge cars and engines and we're in the Swiss Alps. JUST REMEMBER, IT'S YOUR RAILROAD AND YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT. We all hope that you will enjoy your adventure in the world of outdoor railroads as much as we have. In our case I do the trains and track and Nancy enjoys dealing with plants, scenery and people. 


Chuck N


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## Seans_World (Aug 14, 2009)

What we have in mind currently is some of the mines in Clear Creek, Colorado. And what I am running on is Aristo Craft brass track w/brass rail joiners and the tiny screws which brings me to this question; Is it common for the rail joiner screws to routinely loosen up? Is this due to the expansion and contract of the brass? So faar we have the track mounted to Trexx decking material for stability. 
In regards to my curves the 6' wide end (west) is using the 5' curves with a 1' straight section in between and the opposite 7' end (east) is a combination of 4' & 5' curves with a 2' straight threw the 3' tunnel. We are limited right now to an old garden bed in one corner of the yard behind the garage to use and hopefully will be branching out sometime next summer further to the west. Unfortantely one thing we didn't do was get the ground more leveled out around the pond so we do have a slight incline from the west to the east. I realize now theat we should have done the pond round instead square too. But live and learn. 
I really apreciate the links to your other pages and websites, it is really nice to follow along what others ar building and their tricks. 

Sean


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Yes, these silly little screws can work loose. I find you sometimes need to tighten them shortly after you put it together, but then they'll stay. Perhaps a tiny drop of locktite would be in order, but I've never tried it. The screws can prompt some colorful metaphores and many just use rail clamps instead. At the Chicago Botanic, they just forget about the screws, bolt the track to the roadbed and solder jumper wires.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

The screws will work loose do to some expansion and the passage of the trains over the rails causing slight vibrations and working the screws loose. May want to go to rail calmps and that what you eliminate the problems. Later RJD


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

Put a paper plate under the rail joint you're working on. Helps with Language problems , screw is easier to see!!! Sean


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## redbeard (Jan 2, 2008)

"Put a paper plate under the rail joint you're working on. Helps with Language problems , screw is easier to see!!! Sean" 

Wow! That may well be the best tip I have gotten yet! Thanks ! 

Larry Newman


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

I run Stainless steel and have found that after using the supplied hex driver, I can get a better set by using a bent allen wrench. 
I have a harder time getting them undone! 

To start the screw I use some of the packing wax to hold the screw on the driver. 

Changing out track sections of ballasted track; 
Rather than disturbing ballast on both sides of the joint, I taped some masking tape upside down to a piece of card stock and slipped it between the ties; no bounce screws. I remove both screws and use pliers to push the joiner out of the way, thers is plenty of play with Aristo 'spikes'. Then it's lift out one and leave the other at grade. 

Hope these help. 

John


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

What's wrong with slope? 
I think it offers great modeling possibilities. 

My first RR is a tri oval (pics in beginner's thread '4 years young and growing') and I laid the track on the ground. As I watched the 0-4-0 struggle I knew some dirt fills offered a quick solution. After a rain, cribbing and rocks walls became part of the scene and soon a trex girder bridge lifted the rest around the lower corner and across the dry wash.... 
Now all the trex is gone (crumbled in my climate 114 -20 degrees) and homemade cedar trestles and bridges carry the load. 

I'm now considering starting over and am visualizing several linear routes with reverse loops at each end. I'd like to keep part of the original, but I need that track! 

I think part of the charm is seeing the trains navigating the terrain and plants...with ground rising and falling away. But that's just my opinion. 

John


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## jlinde (Jan 2, 2008)

Sean and Valarie - first, let me join everyone here in welcoming you aboard. This is hands down the friendliest board and most helpful board I've encountered in the hobby world (especially compared to the collector car and RC airplane boards I follow) and I suspect you'll become friends with some of the people you meet here. With that out of the way, I was going to suggest that you consider using Split Jaw Railclamps in lieu of the OEM Aristo "super tiny screw" joiners - 

http://www.railclamp.com/displayCategory.jsp?categoryId=1&vId=112936 

The rail clamps come in two sizes: one size fits over the Aristo joiners that you've already installed, and the other size connects rail-to-rail. While I'm never thrilled to suggest a step that costs more money, these have saved me lots of headaches when running track powered trains, and I can now connect track using these clamps far quicker than I can with the Aristo joiners. But I do love the suggestion about paper plates!!!


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## Seans_World (Aug 14, 2009)

Great tips thanks everyone, definitely am going to use the paper plate idea and look into switching over to the clamps rather than the Aristo jioners.


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