m79900
Member
If you wanted to build a short 7 1/4in gauge railway in the garden, where would you go about acquiring the rail, and how much would it cost?
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Garden railways.
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birchesgreen
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I saw this shop in Princes Risborough, not been in but its what they specialise in so i guess a good place to start.
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m79900
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Thanks, I'll have a look.
7 1/4 inch is massive, and not a toy! I have experience with 5" gauge, and even at that gauge anything bigger than a small tank loco needs 2 people to lift them, and most people use a jacked lifting table to get locos between different levels - and you need to get it down to ground level so that means a lift installed in a pit or a crane-equipped trailer.
I would say join a club which has 7 1/4 and help someone who runs on that scale there to get a feel for the practicalities.
(Our club considered installing 7 1/4" but it didn't get anywhere, I believe aluminium rails are easy to handle but have poor adhesion and are expensive and pilferable. It is also a lot of work drilling every sleeper 4 times and screwing the rails down... you can buy Gauge 1 track pre-assembled.)
The other thing I would say is that I would be concerned that you might end up with a train that just shuttled up and down a short track: when you have a train on that scale you really want to go somewhere!
A
(Googling finds lots of stuff, but not as much as smaller gauges. https://www.sevenandaquarter.org/sales-and-wants/?/Engines+&+Rolling+Stock/ has a single point lever at £40!)
I would say join a club which has 7 1/4 and help someone who runs on that scale there to get a feel for the practicalities.
(Our club considered installing 7 1/4" but it didn't get anywhere, I believe aluminium rails are easy to handle but have poor adhesion and are expensive and pilferable. It is also a lot of work drilling every sleeper 4 times and screwing the rails down... you can buy Gauge 1 track pre-assembled.)
The other thing I would say is that I would be concerned that you might end up with a train that just shuttled up and down a short track: when you have a train on that scale you really want to go somewhere!
A
(Googling finds lots of stuff, but not as much as smaller gauges. https://www.sevenandaquarter.org/sales-and-wants/?/Engines+&+Rolling+Stock/ has a single point lever at £40!)
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Agree - a field would be needed so you could run in a large loop. It won't fit in a regular garden.
To put this into perspective... 7¼ inches is the gauge used by most model engineering club railways.
It's... big!! Images of one such group's line in the link below.
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