Which track for OO outdoors?

[faulcon1]

Track should be ballasted outside for the two well known OO gauge garden railways I know of in the UK are Trevor Jones and Paul Barnard's OO gauge garden railways. Trevor has ballasted his track with real granulated ballast fixed with an SBR adhesive. The first section laid in 1993 is still in use today although Trevor says any thoughts of reusing the trackwork have to be forgotten because if you take the trackwork up later on it all disintegrates. Trevor's trackwork is stable and seen in a cab ride. He also replaces the last sleeper on any rail joint with a copper clad sleeper soldered to the rails so that the rail joint doesn't move. Paul Barnard has not ballasted his track between the rails or used copper clad sleepers and kinks in rail joints abound on his railway.

Here's and interview that Jennifer Kirk did at Trevor's place about his garden railway.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by faulcon1

[faulcon1]

Here's cab ride on Paul's garden railway. Strap yourselves in for a wild ride and notice the kinks in the line, the huge lateral movement and the rail joints becoming angles.

 

 

[faulcon1]

Here's a cab ride on Trevor's garden railway and notice the difference in the ride to Paul Barnard's cab ride.

 

 

[faulcon1]

If you desire to have you tracks ballasted the NEVER  EVER use PVA type adhesives on a garden railway not even the exterior types for they just don't cut it. They maybe safe to use in some slightly damp situations but outdoors they'll get more damp than they're formulated to take. One has to use an SBR adhesive which is like a Rolls Royce PVA not an Austin Allegro which is what Resin W is. Don't worry about scale ballast with people saying that in OO use N gauge ballast. OO gauge ballast will work just fine outdoors and when you apply the SBR to it don't use a pipette like you do indoors. You've got far more ballasting to do outside so a squeezable tomato sauce or tomato ketchup bottle of about 500ml with a screw witches hat type cap. SBR is an oil based adhesive and can probably be thinned with white spirit. Many go without ever ballasting outside on whatever track base they decide to use but a ballasted track base does ensure to a greater degree that the track doesn't shift in climatic condition as track pins will move over time, moving the track out of alignment. The rails will still expand and contract in the hot and cold weather and don't be like the real railways and paint the rail sides white as you'll need an airbrush to do that and a very still day. Then when you clean the rail tops you have to clean the rail side too and by the time you've done it all the sun has gone down or the rain has recommenced.