A Setback With Gargraves Track

Hello everyone sorry for the lack of recent posts, have not had much time to work on the layout, even on my last vacation I did not really have much time for the layout have been busy with the family and domestic stuff. 

Anyway I had somewhat of a setback on the layout, my being cheap has caused me some trouble with using Gargraves track outdoors and it’s not what you think, that its corrosion.  

The problem is my German Shepherd, he sometimes steps on the track and Gargraves being hollow will slightly bend even though it’s on solid ballast.

The funny thing is I did not notice this with my little speeder or my 3450 class 4-6-4 Hudson, I noticed it when with great expectation I was going to run my 2-10-4 on the layout, it ran great on the indoor test track but when I tried to run it outdoors it only went a few feet and POP my 10 amp fuse blew,  I searched for the cause and what I found was with its much longer wheelbase the 2-10-4 s front pilot would dip down enough when the back half of the locomotive was above the area that dipped down and the front half would be at the bottom of the dip it caused a enough of a angle that it would touch the rails which of course shorted things out.

Anyhow I have decided the best course of action will be to change to a different brand of track and use the Gargraves for when I build the indoor storage part of my build. 

I have decided to go with Peco code 143 track, so far I bought 4 pieces of their flex track.

I will have 5 days off from work starting next week so hopefully this time I will be able to get some time to work on the layout and get the Peco Track down for testing. 

Until Next Time.