Has anyone ever built a scale7 garden railway

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
This is probably a silly question but has anyone built a S7 garden railway? my father is thinking of rebuilding his garden railway and converting it to S7 in the process. any tip or comments welcome.

Marc
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Personally I think it may be a recipe for disaster. The track would soon be out of alignment and things falling off all over the place.

However modern Slaters wheels do seem to run through S7 pointwork without re-profiling if that helps.

JB.
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
JB, the written word suggests that you are mistaken in respect of S7 in the outdoors. There is at least one S7 Group member who has a S7 garden railway and that has featured in a few of the group's newsletters. I think that the man behind the venture is Richard Davidson.
 

Emma H

Active Member
Interesting subject. I abandoned all ideas about building an exhibition layout ages ago and my thoughts have turned to the garden.

All being well I will have Underground trains making their way way through the flower beds in a few years time.. :eek:
 

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
So my tram locos which have S7 back to backs but un-profiled wheels would be perfect for running outside. And as long as we build the track well we should be ok.
Marc
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
JB, the written word suggests that you are mistaken in respect of S7 in the outdoors. There is at least one S7 Group member who has a S7 garden railway and that has featured in a few of the group's newsletters. I think that the man behind the venture is Richard Davidson.

I stand corrected, thanks for the info Graham.

JB.
 

simond

Western Thunderer
I agree with Phil, but the tolerance for error/misalignment/foreign bodies in S7 is rather less than the more traditional garden scale/gauge choices.

I dabbled in 00 outdoors many years ago, but it wasn’t big or long-lived, and I recall various more extensive layouts in the press in the 70’s (and I guess flange depths may be comparable) and I recall some brave soul writing about his N gauge garden line in RM donkeys years back.

sure you can do it. Whether it’s fun is another question.

Atb
Simon
 

adrian

Flying Squad
I dabbled in 00 outdoors many years ago, but it wasn’t big or long-lived, and I recall various more extensive layouts in the press in the 70’s (and I guess flange depths may be comparable)
There was the Birmingham New Street 00 garden model in Sutton Coldfield (IIRC) - I was fortunate enough to visit on one open day. That ran well and thoroughly entertaining. It was a while ago now but I don't remember any issues with the track.
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
It's all down to the types of materials used for track base, I can't see why the S7 profiled wheels and gauge wouldn't work.
The ordinary ply sleepers are probably not w.b.p, not sure how long plastic would last in our weather either, so a thicker sleeper for starters, perhaps 4mm wbp Hardwood ply well soaked in preservative ? . or solid H/WD walnut ? etc.

Col.
 

Overseer

Western Thunderer
My S7 locos and stock ran on Richard Davidson's line a number of times with no problem. The outdoor part was above ground and an irregularly shaped oval about 60m circumference. Richard's stock mostly had even finer flanges than S7 as he made his own wheels exactly to scale for the prototype, mostly early wagons and locos which predated the 20th century BS profile copied by the S7 standards. Springing or compensation make up for any undulations in the track better than large flanges in a rigid chassis ever would.
 

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
I sounds like this could be not a stupid idea. It also might be a way round indoor meetings if this nightmare is the "New Normal". When I started in 7mm our local group was based round garden railways with garage extensions for winter running. It was like having a garden party every month. At the moment my Dad has two 32mm "narrow gauge" wonky circles which need some attention. If I leave one as narrow gauge, convert one to S7 and then add a 45mm outside line for G1(1/32) then most people will be able to bring something to run.
 
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