Dear all I finished laying the track after many months and have been testing it for a few weeks before doing the scenics. I used the Peco railguage for streamline, not the setrack side. There is a couple of tightish turns on a double track section (3rd and 4th radius) where rolling stock hits each other. Should I have used the setrack gauge or something in between. I wish it had had instructions!!!!!! Rob
You should always widen the separation between the tracks on sharp curves (where sharp is determined by trial and error.) In my case, my minimum radius is 3 feet 6 inches, so the standard streamline separation sufficed.
I think that it bares repeating, before you finally set your track in place,
*physically test the clearances*, then *test them again* (1) and make sure that you use your longest stock as they are the items that produce the largest "overhang" as they cut the corner.
For my part I run Mk1s behind a Warship one way and more Mk1s behind a Western the other (I only have two of those smelly diesel thingies) and the Mk1s came courtesy of Harry Potter. Having done thus I know with absolute certainty that small tanks hauling trucks won't have any problems.
I have recently been planning a layout, my first attempt since I was a teenager in the 1960's. My plans were all but complete when I decided to check clearances for MK1 coaches on double track curves.
My plans had minimum radius curves of 60cm radius and with 5cm between track centres. I measured the coach length over couplers and between bogie centres and then used my O'level geometry knowledge for the first time in many years and found that I would have about 1mm clearance between a coach end on the inner curve and a coach centre on an outer curve.
I redrew the plans with an additional 5mm between track centres on the curves.
I was surprised to find, from my calculations, that the additional clearances required for coach ends on the outer side of a curve and the coach centre on the inner side of a curve were roughly equal.
The calculations I performed were all based on the rule that the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides of a right angle triangle are equal to the square of the longer side.
I have recently been planning a layout, my first attempt since I was a teenager in the 1960's. My plans were all but complete when I decided to check clearances for MK1 coaches on double track curves.
My plans had minimum radius curves of 60cm radius and with 5cm between track centres. I measured the coach length over couplers and between bogie centres and then used my O'level geometry knowledge for the first time in many years and found that I would have about 1mm clearance between a coach end on the inner curve and a coach centre on an outer curve.
I redrew the plans with an additional 5mm between track centres on the curves.
I was surprised to find, from my calculations, that the additional clearances required for coach ends on the outer side of a curve and the coach centre on the inner side of a curve were roughly equal.
The calculations I performed were all based on the rule that the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides of a right angle triangle are equal to the square of the longer side.
That is the best way to do it I think, although having worked this out for a series of radii I realised I have not taken into account the width of the coach. After banging head on table I added a totally unscientific 'bugger factor' - This worked but only just as I forgot the effect of the cutting the corner would increase disproportionately as the curve tightened. I did think of buying the Fleishman template (on the assumption that their curves are designed for the job, and they go down to 7.5 inches in N) but thats about seven pounds so I never got round to it. One day I'll lay some set-track from various firms on a sheet of paper and use a pencil to find the overhang in the centre and at the ends, one day . . .
Right. I don't see the need for settrack templates, as they're all fixed radius. The only tricky things are the curved points (both curves second radius, but one offset from ther other).
I laid out my layout (a combination of settrack and flextrack) with pieces of foamboard cut to the appropriate radii & marked into sectors.
Riemann came up with something a fair while before Einstein. Triangles on the surface of a sphere (such as the earth's surface) do not necessarily obey Pythagoras.
If 67mm is enough between 1st and second, then a smaller gap would suffice between 2nd and third (the overhang is smaller for larger radii). .
Even gaps between radii are presumably intended to maintain the correect gap for crossovers and points which connect lines on the straight portions of set-track layouts
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