I'm doing a ceiling layout in my store. should I use steel or brass track? If brass, someone told me to put a light oil on the track about 24" long. The layout will be about 100ft. long. will the oil help to reduce wear? How about drilling holes in the chassic & install a blower inside to keep the motor cooler? How long can I run the locomotive in a day? Thanks for any information on this, Joe
yrusoslo, I have a shelf/ceiling layout in my home, and have the inexpensive Bachman steel track. While it has done well...I would reccomend going with brass track, as the conductivity will be much, much better. I would change mine, but we may be moving over the next year, and I will save that one for the next home. :tb-biggrin: As for the oil....again, I may not be really experienced, but I have never seen that one. There are oils that are conductive, but I would think that it would also attract dirt/dust...something u will have, and need to clean off from time to time. Wear on the rails is not a problem, either. I have run mine for a long time at a time, and not experienced any overheating, etc. both indoors and out. Others may have better info on this......but in my opinion, I dont think that will be an issue. I would think u can run for quite a while a day..... Hopefully some others will chime in......I tried to find a thread where there were some shelf layout pics...but at this time, it eludes me....Ill keep trying. Good luck with the project, and please send pictures!!!! D
Pics ok, found the thread........ http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=110470&page=3 There are some pics on about page 3 or so........ Regards, Darryl
If it helps, my pediatrician has a G scale ceiling train looping around the toy/play room off his lobby. It's been running in endless circles 8 hours a day for at least a decade. I only assume they turn it off at night. It doesn't look like a particularly high quality unit, though I *think* it's an LGB engine. Not that I have a clue whether or not that's a good thing.
I had a ceiling layout myself which started out with Bachmann track, but as dmiller stated I soon switched over to brass track and you don't need oil for that. The Bachmann track is steel and corrosion due to moisture was a issue which was one reason I switched, another reason is that Bachmann track uses slip joints and they loosen over time. Aristocraft and USA Trains brass track actually screw together and you don't have to worry about lossing conductivity. I will make one added suggestion and listen to someone who made a big mistake, make some kind of gaurdrail in case the train derails, I never did and the train came crashing down to a destructive mess. Plexiglass makes a great gaurd rail and you can see thru it. Also a 1 inch piece of wood stripping would also work.
