I'm in the process of designing a new portion of my (HO-scale) layout and I'd like to hear from anyone who'd like to comment on a minor dilemma that I'm facing.
In one portion of my layout, I'm going to have an S-curve, but per John Armstrong's recommendations in "Track Planning For Realistic Operation", I will have a straight section of track (actually the straight section of a turnout). Anyway, the bottom portion of the "S" is a 33" radius curve, while the top portion is 30", and I plan to include easements in the "outer" portions of both those curves. Here's the problem, though: I don't see any way to include easements on the "inner" portions of the curves (the parts that intersect with the turnout / straight section) without making the S-curve approximately 18" longer (Armstrong suggests an 18" easements for
30" curves), which I just can't do because of space constraints.If I understand correctly, half of the 18 inches needed for an easement would normally be "stolen" (for lack of a better term) from the tangent / straight section of track leading into the curve, and since I have an S curve, I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that I'd need _two_ easements: one for the "top" portion of the "S", and another for the "bottom" portion, meaning that I'd need a total of 18" for the two easements _in addition to_ the straight section of track / turnout.
The bottom line is that due to a lack of space, it appears to me that I won't be able to include easements inside the S-curve, but I'm hoping that my understanding is flawed and I'll be able to have both the straight section _and_ easements. Anyway care to offer comments or suggestions?