Hey guys talk to me about G scale.

[gruggier]

I have been doing alot of research on the G scale trains, especially the Aristo-Craft line Steam locamotives.

Trainworld has some great prices.

I am seriously getting the itch. I may need to sell a couple rifles or three, (my other expensive hobby) but its this line that I want to get. I want to get the Mikado 2 8 2 Baltimore & Ohio with Vanderbuilt tender, and its realted heavy passenger cars.

My question is what do you all think about this Company? Do they make track sets that include the proper power source?

I was just thinking of purchacing the Locamotive and Heavy passenger cars first. Then get the rest of the stuff later.

I plan on setting this up ouside come spring. I know my Kid would love this, and me to obviously.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Also any other great hobby stores I should look at?

Guy.

 

[oldtanker]

Guy we have also been looking into "Garden Trains" and found that there are a lot of kid type toys that are close enough to scale that a small area for kids to play near the layout is possible. There are a lot of sources on the net for more info. If you send me a PM i can send you some links.


Rick

 

[MasonJar]

This is the link to the local G-scale guys. Great bunch, very helpful. I know they like the Aristo line.

www.ovgrs.org

Andrew

 

[oldtanker]

Andrew, good site!

Rick

 

[yellowlynn]

Hello Guy. About 5 months ago I bought 2 Aristocraft 2-4-2 Rogers train sets. I got an LGB 2-4-0 loco at the same time. I use them in an indoor atrium at a pediatric clinic. They are on 2 seperate tracks, and I ran 1 Aristocraft and the LGB. They run nearly all day, 5 days a week. The Aristocraft outlasted the LGB by 3-4 weeks. These are on 4' diameter curves. Larger curves and larger locos I can't tell you about. The LGB cost $200+, and the Aristocraft sets cost a mite over $100 w/shipping. I ordered 2 more small locos as backups, Aristocraft, of coarse.

Lynn

 

[nkp174]

gruggier, have you seen their pacifics? I don't know how familiar you are with trains in general, so I thought I'd mention those as well. Pacifics were more or less the passenger version of mikados...and vice a versa. That being said, the Southern 4501, NKP 587, and various other mikes are far more famous for pulling excursions than for pulling freight. In fact, the NKP mikes would frequently pull their premier passenger trains from the coach yards in Chicago to the station with their mikes while the passenger power was serviced. I saw a complete Aristocraft train at Caboose Hobbies once...wow! Most importantly, run whatever you'd like.

The $270 close out on the mikes is awesome at trainworld.

 

[gruggier]

nkp174

I was thinking of buying that model also so I could run both! They are way to cool! Once I sell some of my collections of firearms, I plan on buying quite a bit of stuff.

 

[Jim Krause]

You said " you were planning to set them up in the yard"? My limited knowledge of G scale tells me that you may need to talk to someone concerning roadbed etc. I don't know how well the track would work, just setting on the grass.

 

[gruggier]

Jim I am very new at this and I am still learning. I was thinking of first getting the Locamotives and the passenger cars. I have a concrete patio in the back yard and I can do a simple oval type setup for now. Don't you worry I will be asking a lot of questions.

 

[nolatron]

I made a brief jump into G-Scale last year. Setup a temp layout in my backyard in the grass to run my aristo-craft dash 9 on. That's about as far as I got

Now my Dash-9 and intermodals set on display in the dining room, with a stack of curves and 6ft straights in the my closet. Maybe one day when I can actually afford it, the backyard at the new house will be... redeveloped

Aristo-craft is one the major players in the g-scale market, so they have some good hardware.

USA Trains is another big name. I find a lot of their items have a little more detail. I'm dying to get a SD70MAC from them to add to the display.

I'd also recommend a Bridgewerks powersupply if you're gonna go track power. Though battery power seems to be the thing these days because there's less hassle of track upkeep for good power distribution.

 

[yellowlynn]

Smullen, I think the LGB lasted a bit over 3 months, about 14 weeks. The Aristocraft made it 18-19 weeks. One track is 4X12 oval and the other is about 4X15 oval. That means the locos were on curves an awful lot, and running 40+ hours a week. Minimum curves for any G gauge is 4', so they have pretty stressful running.

Not much of a layout. All the kids are interested in is just seeing a train running. I put some buildings, cars and people around, but not what you would call scrnery. The doctors and nurses say the kids go nuts and are no problem to handle at all.

Lynn

 

[Triplex]

USA Trains is another big name. I find a lot of their items have a little more detail. I'm dying to get a SD70MAC from them to add to the display.

Nit to pick: Models of standard gauge equipment on "G" track aren't G, but Gauge 1 (1/32). Sometimes, standard gauge is also represented with 1/29, whichproduces a scale/gauge mismatch similar to OO.