Loco Bill, 

First of all thank you for your good advice.  I have since ordered 60' of straight track and 8' dia curved track and will see if I can confine my layout to the 8' dia curve to accomodate the use of a Three-Truck Shay which I have an interest in.  My trestles are based on a height of 42" and I have built my first few of about 30 or more to come that have a width at the top of 14".  I intend to build "modules" in wood (rail and tie) for each section of track (straight or curved) with the intention that they be interchangeable in the event they need to be replaced or replaired.  Now to my question:  What spacing can and should I allow for parallel tracks as I intend to run them that way to the different sections of my half acre berry garden.  I am an organic market gardner growing at present 17 types of berries and will be using the G scale railroad to run the picked pints back to my barn for tempory refrigeration before they go to market.

Cheers,

Jim Stewart 

Can anyone tell me what the inside dimensions of a gondola car like #90390 are?  I am in further need of 3 or 4 to start with.  I am building a Bachmann G scale layout that will entirely be on trestles and will be using "Annies" to pull them with pints of berries from my garden.  I am trying to work out whether or not I can also run a Three-Truck Shay like #82499 on my layout and if I have to stay with 8' dia curves to do so or if I can use 4" dia with them with caution at low speed.  I'm just getting started and have a lot to learn.  My initial setup will involve about 100' ft of track in the Spring but plan to continue to build out to about another 100' in the summer and will likely move to in the range of 400' to 500' feet next year.  I plan to keep it simple with analog and minimal switches or none at all.  I would appreciate any advice from you "old hands".  I picked up a lot from Ross Carson who does the Longwood Gardens layout every year.