O scale outdoor layouts

A fie idea IF you live in the right climate AND are willing to do a lot of continuous upkeep and regular maintenance.

There's a reason Large Scale (G gauge) trains are intentionally designed for outdoor use.

Hi Folks,

The San Leandro Historical Railway Society is building the G&O garden railroad in San Leandro, CA (San Francisco Bay Area).  The layout is both G and O gauge (3-rail).

The layout has been under construction since 2007 and is just getting operational.  You can see see photos at the club's website:

http://www.slhrs.org/

Joe

Hi Kenn,

Here's another outdoor O-Gauge layout.

The Woodshire Railroad

I was contracted to build the Woodshire back in the summer of 2004.  The owner has had a lot of fun with the layout over the years, but it is definitely a labor of love.  Outdoor O-gauge poses many challenges, especially in a wet climate like Seattle.  The Woodshire runs DCS and Legacy successfully via track power.  Many people running outdoors in Seattle (mostly G-gauge) opt for battery power so they can run in any weather.  Either way, it's doable and a lot of fun.  Check out some of the videos on the website above and you'll see what I mean.

Here is another impressive outdoor O scale 2 rail layout by Davy over in England. He is right here on the OGR 2 rail forum.

https://ogrforum.com/d...ent/5512461211870139

I would be interested to see how someone else's outdoor O gauge layour experiment would run, but as an earlier poster said, it would require a temperate climate and continuous upkeep.

I live in Texas, which has brutal summers. I'm also likely to be moving around, and I don't want to be the guinea pig.

The way battery technology and radio/wireless control has progressed, I could imagine running a medium- to large-sized steam locomotive using battery power with the batteries stored either in the tender or in the first car after the locomotive.