Spacing between tracks

On straights, about 3cm. On curves, whatever you can get away with.

It is determined by the geometry of the track you are using, principally turnouts, but as others have indicated, it is around 3cm. A word of advice: don't necessarily rely on a figure. When laying your track, nothing substitutes for testing with extra large coaches such as MKIII/IV's which have extra long overhangs, Centenary coaches which are extra wide and locos with front overhands eg 4-4-0s. The idea is to test with two such vehicles to ensure they do not collide. This of course applies mainly to curves. Graham Plowman, MROL Magazine

I assume that is the distance between adjacent rails.

Kevin

Thanks. However I am also interested in allowing space for the coaches/locos that we haven't yet acquired. Given the dimensions and pivot locations I can calculate the required space, but the Hornby catalog doesn't give widths (or any dimensions at all in the case of the Thomas range) so I wouldn't have known that some vehicles are unusually wide. Our current stock has a maximum width of 37mm.

Regards, Mark Thornton

Mark,

The movement envelope of our models is pretty consistent. The best way to prepare your layout for models not yet purchased is to measure using models which are on the extremes of size, for example:

- Lima/New Hornby MKIII for length, end overhang and centre overhang

- Airfix/Dapol Centenary/Auto Coach for width and centre overhang

- Lima GWR 45xx for height

If you do this, you won't go far wrong, but if you keep with the geometry of the track you are using, you'll find that in general, all of this has already been worked out for you. Graham Plowman MROL Magazine mrol.gppsoftware.com

The track centre to centre distance works out at about 45mm for straights ( 4mm = 1ft scale UK prototype). If you are using RTR standards you need to go a little wider to allow for extra slop between the models and track. You can get an idea of what you need by using the track centre chart on my web page, which is for NSW HO. If you add 3mm to the result from the chart you should be OK for UK 00 models.