By Jo Anne DeKeles LSOL.com Customer Service Manager

Author  Bio Getting started in Garden Trains can be a challenge. Once nice thing is there are people that have been there before you. We asked our members what have they learned with their years of developing Garden Railroads.

Lowell Dietz: 1. Code 332 is definitely sturdier. 2. Stainless is very hard to bend. 3. I’ve never had a problem with ballast on code 250 rail. 4. Code 332 rail is too big (a little over 10.5 inches standard gauge and a little over 6.5 inches narrow gauge). 5. Aluminum rail is shiny and looks funny. 6. Nickel-Silver looks the best from a color standpoint. 7. Sunset Valley ties look funny. 8. Sunset Valley has no scale narrow gauge ties. 9. Llagas Creek ties fit too tightly with the rail.

Rick Henderson: Good track work is about the most important part of building a model railroad if you want reliable operation of your trains. Before a person starts out to even design their layout on paper, they should take time to learn about track grades, easements into grades and curves, reverse curves, turnout sizes, how best to place them and clearances. If you take your time to understand what is necessary for reliable operation and stick with the minimum standards you establish, the track you lay will last and not need to be replaced when some new item comes along. There is no need to replace what you have if it works until you ware it out.

Jon D. Miller: Poor operation of equipment on a layout, in the end, always leads back to bad trackwork, no matter the type rail used. Just like a building, if the foundation is not done correctly, that which follows will always develop or give problems.

Mike Evans: We (our club) rebuilt using Aristo brass with large radius curves and mostly 5' sections. What an improvement! First each joint has those neat stainless steel screws and an expansion slot. Using conductive grease, we had no continuity problems in over 600' of track with only two track feeders. In our area, temperatures range from 115 in the summer to 20 in the winter. The built-in expansion of each joint spread this over the entire system so that there wall almost no situation with track expanding off the roadbed or shrinking on curves. We avoided fastening the track except across bridges so it could float freely as much as possible.

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