OK I am posting this here as well as the discussion unfolding under micros. The idea of using Gargraves #1 (G) gauge track has come up. It is a stainless steel flex track with wooden tie strips. Each assembled section is 37" long and cost $10. Now it is hollow instead of solid. Is anyone using this or have they used it? What the thoughts on it for indoor use and also outdoor use? What code is it? It looks very easy to work with as it flexes easy.
Thoughts?
Hollow? Hello!
On the ground and people may walk on it, depending on the gauge of the metal it might survive, but I wouldn’t chance it with one of my 300 pound Javalina (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)Their hooves have nicked the stainless, but it didn’t bend.
Indoors on a shelf, sure why not? Just remember to always bend around an object to prevent kinks. Paint the rail and polish the tops.
Does it look round like Lionel’s old track? Or does it have a prototype rail head?
For a display or playing trains?
John
John Caughey said:
Hollow? Hello!
On the ground and people may walk on it, depending on the gauge of the metal it might survive, but I wouldn’t chance it with one of my 300 pound Javalina (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)Their hooves have nicked the stainless, but it didn’t bend.
Indoors on a shelf, sure why not? Just remember to always bend around an object to prevent kinks. Paint the rail and polish the tops.
Does it look round like Lionel’s old track? Or does it have a prototype rail head?
For a display or playing trains?
John
John,
Those are all the questions I have, also. From a distance it looks more prototypical than the old Lionel. The wood ties look nice and given that they are individual I am thinking they can be spaced to ones liking to look more narrow gaugeish. I would like to see a cross section profile of it to see if it looks like real rail head. I also question its use outdoor for just the reason you suggest, though 300# javalina are not a problem but 150-300 pound people are. The way it connects is kinda cool, with a pin inserted into the hollow and then they solder it, I would think it would offer great conductivity.
The main thought is indoors for micros. But I think the prototypical look is even more important with micros as peple will be more likely to examine the details. They do bend it around something fully assembled.
But basically the same questions you raise are why I asked the questions.
OH and if you need some “help” with those 300# javalinas I can promise you me and my daughter wold love to come visit and help “fix” your problem. Helping people with wild hog or javalina problems is high on my bucket list. I have eaten wild hog once and love it.
I tried using the Gargraves SS track out of doors, many years ago. I would NOT recommend it for out-of-doors.
The stuff I used had Basswood ties, and I tried just about every preservative available, but none helped to preserve them for more than a year or two. The ties were also too short to look good in LS. I think they might have produced some with plastic ties, but those were too short also. The rail is hollow like Lionel rail, and could be called “Code 250”.
It is a challenge to use any other track with the Gargraves track, as it takes a lot of effort to make up compensation rails for connecting. Their method of connecting is with brass pins. Bending the Gargraves track is NOT as easily done as they suggest, but some people seem to master the challenge.
If anyone wants track for indoor use, as a display track, it can be used successfully.
Way back when…I contacted Gargraves, and asked if they would produce their track with a better wooden tie. They told me then, that they were set up for only one length of tie, and their tools would “Gum-up” cutting other types of wood. They used their one length of ties for all the track they made, “O”, and “LS”…and like I suggested above; they do produce their “O Gauge” track with plastic ties now…or at least they did a few years ago, but I’m not sure that they did, or not produce it on plastic ties in “LS”. …and I’m not sure the plastic ties were/are UV protected.
As was suggested by another poster…the rail will not stand up to the reality of life in the great out-of-doors, so I suggest that it is NOT worth any saving, that anyone might have hoped for.
Fred Mills
Devon,
I’m training my javalinas to be nocturnal. The only trait they share with a hog, is the snout. Otherwise, they are peccaries or big rodents!
Get your own pecs, I feed the birds to bring the desert in close.
(I said; training)
John
John Caughey said:
Devon,
I’m training my javalinas to be nocturnal. The only trait they share with a hog, is the snout. Otherwise, they are peccaries or big rodents!
Get your own pecs, I feed the birds to bring the desert in close.
(I said; training)
John
Fair enough John, and did not know that about Javalinas.
Fred,
That was just the sort of review I was looking for and what you say I pretty much expected to here. It seems to me to be an O scale product that was just widened to try and tap a new market (not necessarily a bad idea). i believe it may have its application indoors as a display or for the micro. What’s the rail cross section like. Does it look like Lionel or is it prototypical looking?
I have not used it, but I saw some in the hobby shop. The real wood ties did look nice, but too short. The rail was formed and it had a edge that fit into the groves of the tie, so the rail did not look prototypical as in the foot of the rail resting ON TOP OF the tie. Also the rail head was rounded, like Lionel tinplate. Now my observations are from some track I saw many years ago, they may have changed the design since then, I don’t know.
Judging from the picture I just googled, it doesn’t look like its been changed.
Folks,
based on my use of some of there o gauge product many years ago I would avoid this for any use. the rail is formed tinplate similar to the older Bachman track an would be limited to indoor use. creating curves however is another issue all together. they suggest forming around a fixed curve surface which sounds simple, but in fact resulted in some kinks which had to be worked out. we were building this layout for another gentleman and offered instead to hand lay his railroad, but he had already purchased great quantities of the gargraves material. ironically he was going to scratch build all the switches of which he only completed a few before we terminated our involvement in the project. I do not think they make matching switches, but I may be wrong. bottom line if you are looking for a display track, or to build a Micro with sharp radius turns , hand lay the appropriate rail of your chosen code. you may pay the same for shipping and end up with a better quality rail that you can work with.
Al P.
Thanks Al and David,
I think I will be sticking to the original plan of Llagas code 215 aluminum rail and hand laying my own for the micro. You all are confirming what I suspected about it.
Devon
They do make “switches”, but they don’t look like what I expect a switch to look like.
Al, you “terminated your involvement in the project”? Is that a kind way of saying you walked out on the twerp?
That’s a very unusual design
Would that be a Gargraves switch ? I think that design would eliminate alot of the problems we have all had with switch tracks at one time or another.
Yea, no frog, no picking the point of the frog. No flange-ways, no flange-ways that are too shallow.
But its ugly
Mom said I wuz pretty!
For many track is just a conveyance to see the trains!
I remember that track selector turnout thingy in a foggy memory. Perhaps from Lionel’s 3rd rail…
You can see the evolution of design…
(I didn’t know the pic would be foggy too…)
John
Devon Sinsley said:
But its ugly
Devon, I wasn’t saying it wuz pretty, I said it didn’t look the way I think a switch should look.
Gar Graves track isn’t my first choice in track in any gauge. It isn’t my second choice, my third choice…in fact, I don’t understand why they have been in business so long, when their track looks so awful. Maybe its the price point.
Better than the all steel Lionel, remember what it is there to replace…
I’d rather have ugly and reliable, than pretty and troublesome. As has been said, track is just a means of convince for our trains. For others the track is part of the model. Being a garden hobby I’m surprised that switch track design didn’t follow the simpler method.
Dan, yes I vote for reliable every time. But I also want it to look decent. My Aristo 332 stainless looks good, and has been reliable, even the 2 wide radius spring switches I have are reliable, after I tuned them up.
