The Ballast I use is known here in Oz as crusher fine. I get it from a garden supply and as a rule I have seen it at a few so it seems to be readily available. It is bluestone dust basically so I tend to run it thru a sieve and get the excess dust out and also the bits that are to large. Locks up real well and looks good also. Cost is about 50 dollars Aud a small trailer load and it is HEAVY.
Another thing which I find surprising in garden railway videos is why people stick to short radius curves and pointwork in the great outdoors, where you usually have all the space available you want (which isn't the case indoors usually) It makes those big engines look ridiculous, when a chalenger or a big boy goes over small radius curve the boiler overhang is such that in real life the loco would probably tip over! I guess it's time some of the fabulous input great model railroaders of the '60 and '70 gave to us old timers like John Armstrong, and many others seep into the wonderfull world of garden railroading, to help bring the level of realism up to what ti is in indoor modeling. Not that I have anything against the naive or beggining modeler, if he gets fun and enjoyment that's fine with me. But for those who strive to improve their standards, if only to match the detailing of their models, it would be good to see more attempts at reproducing the real Mac Coy. and they hardly run standard gauge over curves of less than 360 scale feet (and at least twice that on mainlines) Thats about 4 yards radius in 1/32 scale. Try to put a curve like that in your garden and place such a big loco on it: Presto you will see that all of a sudden it starts looking realistic.
Evening gents et all
Not new to LS as some of you who know me, know. Years ago now, I used to make LS switches (points to our English cousins) and sold them into the states thru Eldorado Railways. 2 things happened about the same time. The Australian dollar started getting stronger and John Pritchard died. He owned Eldorado Railways.
The Challenger I bought from MTH I had ordered and placed a thousand dollar deposit on it (half its retail price here +shipping and + customs) 1 year before it was released for sale. Got some ribbing from folks over that until they saw it. In reply to the above I knew long before it arrived that there were going to be visual problems with what turned out to be a very large loco and planned accordingly. hence I show this photo to you all
When I showed this photo years ago I got the usual questions, and then the response on inquiry as to how much, that it was to expensive, that I stopped making these switches in total and only just for myself and local consumption Then rarely above a number 6. These are #10,s in a crossover. Seems to me that people want the trains and will pay for them, but track? How dare you make money out of large scale was one response. I think this answers your question?
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MTH new 2013 catalog
in General Discussion
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The Ballast I use is known here in Oz as crusher fine. I get it from a garden supply and as a rule I have seen it at a few so it seems to be readily available. It is bluestone dust basically so I tend to run it thru a sieve and get the excess dust out and also the bits that are to large. Locks up real well and looks good also. Cost is about 50 dollars Aud a small trailer load and it is HEAVY.