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Originally I thought it was good enough for me to admit to not enjoy gardening. I have neither the talent for nor interest in making things grow that result in more work for myself.
My original outdoor layout was elevated. This was not by choice but rather the result of our house being built on the side of a hill.
Last year we rebuilt the outside layout and my wife decided that she wanted to landscape around the tracks which was fine with me. I even added a bit of dirt to raise the ground a little where the composite decking of the layout was nearest to the ground. It looked nice.
I also happen to love to run trains (LGB trains that is) in a pouring rain.
Last week it rained and for the first time since we rebuilt the layout I ran trains in the rain on it. The loco stuttered and stopped and did it again and again until I finally gave up and brought the train in.
It was not until the loco had dried off that I realized what had happened. It was not bad track contact (so no one is going to sell me on battery operations) but rather the bottom of the loco was covered with gritty sand/dirt (I think they call it sandy loam).
The rain had been splattering the dirt/sand up onto the bottom of the loco and into all the moving parts of the loco.
The next step is now going to be to get all the dirt far enough away from my tracks so that even a heavy downpour will be unable to wash or splatter dirt or sand onto the rails and I can return to happily running trains in the rain.
We tend to think of our layouts as being indoors or outdoors. I think we need a third classification so we would have indoors, outdoors in/on the dirt, and outdoors but elevated.
Perhaps I now better understand why some folks move to battery power and manual switches - to compensate for the problems caused by dirt & sand. Personally I prefer elevated operations and track powered locos and turnouts.
Cheers,
Jerry
My original outdoor layout was elevated. This was not by choice but rather the result of our house being built on the side of a hill.
Last year we rebuilt the outside layout and my wife decided that she wanted to landscape around the tracks which was fine with me. I even added a bit of dirt to raise the ground a little where the composite decking of the layout was nearest to the ground. It looked nice.
I also happen to love to run trains (LGB trains that is) in a pouring rain.
Last week it rained and for the first time since we rebuilt the layout I ran trains in the rain on it. The loco stuttered and stopped and did it again and again until I finally gave up and brought the train in.
It was not until the loco had dried off that I realized what had happened. It was not bad track contact (so no one is going to sell me on battery operations) but rather the bottom of the loco was covered with gritty sand/dirt (I think they call it sandy loam).
The rain had been splattering the dirt/sand up onto the bottom of the loco and into all the moving parts of the loco.
The next step is now going to be to get all the dirt far enough away from my tracks so that even a heavy downpour will be unable to wash or splatter dirt or sand onto the rails and I can return to happily running trains in the rain.
We tend to think of our layouts as being indoors or outdoors. I think we need a third classification so we would have indoors, outdoors in/on the dirt, and outdoors but elevated.
Perhaps I now better understand why some folks move to battery power and manual switches - to compensate for the problems caused by dirt & sand. Personally I prefer elevated operations and track powered locos and turnouts.
Cheers,
Jerry
