kray1971

Thanks for all the input!! I'll post some pics when I get a chance. I'm definitely planning on sticking with electric and not going battery. To the best of my knowledge I should still be successful (I hope) sticking with electric using the aluminum rails .

Hi all. I'm obviously new to the forum, but I wanted to jump right in... So I’m hoping I can find a solution to my “problem†here… I’m looking to construct my garden railroad in the very near future and I’m looking for inexpensive ways to do it (the cost is not necessarily my immediate problem. I believe I’ve solved this issue, for the most part). Somewhere on the internet I found a posting of someone who fashioned his own G-scale track using aluminum flat bars. I found this fascinating and so I set out to do just the same. Turns out finding and purchasing aluminum bars isn’t all that cost effective. It is certainly cheaper than buying LGB and USA Trains track, but was still heavy on the wallet. I mentioned my situation to a co-worker and he offered this simple solution… At this point I should mention I work in the shipping dept of a printing company. The presses use blankets (large rubber mats) when printing. These blankets have aluminum bars on each end, about three feet long each. These bars are what my co-worker pointed out to me! So needless to say I have a large amount of these bars I’ve cut away from the discarded blankets. Now to my problem… I’ve already made a prototype section of track that works well. I’ve gone ahead and made another section of track, improving a bit on the prototype. The problem is connecting these track sections. I’ve tried a soldering iron however the rails being aluminum, the solder won’t take. Anyone out there have an idea on how I can connect the sections of track? I scoured Home Depot looking for any kind of bracket and came up empty. If anyone is curious, I can provide pictures of what I have so far. Thanks in advance for any ideas.