Outdoor model railroad track
2008-04-24 17:47:37.86927+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments
Ludicrous question: Anyone got suggestions for a places to find something like 1/8" x 1/2" nickel silver metal strip? Or another metal that'd be electrically conductive on its surface, and not prone to corrosion or oxidation?
The trains could end up on a shelf indoors, but if they do they'll never run. We're not likely to have parties indoors, the house is too small, but we've got a nice back yard, and we've got a strip along which we're planning to plant things on a trellis. I've also recently gotten a line on scraps of some great wood for outdoor use (in deck usage they'll warranty it for 25 years without a finish), and though I have yet to take a router to it to see how tough it is to machine, I'm thinking that it'd be cool to do an S-gauge model railroad track loop either at about a foot off ground level, or at eye level mounted to this trellis structure.
And it seems like the right way to do this is actually to just route track grooves into the supporting boards, and inset rails into silicone. Use Sipo Dominos as the joiners, finish the thing with Penofin, and have a place to run the trains in a space we like to hang out.