Hello, After looking through my house to find a new place to layout out train, I emptied of shelf in storage area of my basement. Please take a look at the attachment and let me know can I do any layout on this shelf and what kind of layout. I am going to use Unitracks. Thank you so much for your help. Mo
Hey, If you can ballon out the ends a little you can have a loop style track, otherwise you can make a pretty good point to point layout. The 2 foot witdh is too narrow for most rolling stock. Not saying it can not be done, but it is pretty tight for anything longer than a GP35 and a 50 foot car. If you can ease out the ends to support a 16 inch radius, you will be a lot happier. But then again, a good point to point can also be a lot of fun too.
Hi Mo, With a 16 radius I would use a minimum of 36 inches. That will give you 2 inches between the edge and the track center. If you can make it larger then the better. Just a quick example Gary
When i started to make my newest plan i had the same issue. My "Fix" was to add a corner piece to allow the track surface to be wide enough. I have one track that is right on top of that piece and another piece of the track on one of the corners. Its a corner that i made from scrap. I can show the layout in picture but i don't know about posting on someones else's post. It is a triangle piece. :tb-smile:
The easiest thing to do is through that curve to the middle of the benchwork. Or add a small fillet piece as was mentioned above. Or if you do not have cats aor small children you could use a bridge to span over that inside corner.
Have a look at jhn_plsn's SP layout. It's close to the same size, being only slightly wider than what you have in mind: jhn_plsn's SP layout
OK Mo Here is my 2cent for what its worth. I think you are doing yourself a lot of good by bringing your question to the Nscale group here on train board. Already I see some really great advice with contributing photos and info. I think back to a time when we had to depend on just layout books to plan our layouts. Today you have interactive advise with groups like this one. I hope you will share what you decide on doing with us as well as the progress you make as you go. We all can learn togather that way. Anyway I have attached a weblink to my 10ft. long CS&WP layout. Although it is actually smaller than the room you have avaliable. It does illustrate the ballon at each end I hope it helps. http://mysite.verizon.net/resoeyzk/ibuildmodelrailroads2/id1.html
Since you mentioned you are planning on using Unitrack, the 348mm is a 13.7" radius. I also subscribe to the above mentioned at least 2"-3" of space between the track and edge of the layout school so this size Unitrack would require a balloon of about 33". If you go with the classic 315mm Unitrack, that's about a 12.5" radius and you would need about a 30" balloon. The 315mm Unitrack will handle most everything but won't always look the best doing it. You could squeeze the 9.75" radius Unitrack into the 2' space you have but that radius is REALLY tight. I use the 8.5" radius on a Christmas display and can really only use 40' cars and GP7s, MT's FT, and Kato NW2s. I think that will be a nice layout and would be interested in seeing how it comes out. Andy Tetsu Uma
Well, Mo, its all yours and you've got good advice abounding. You have practical running (minimum radii needed) and appearance needs (maximum radii possible) and interference for desired other trackage/services. Benchwork solutiopns for your plan are 2 or three 3 bumps to the simple plan. So, what'cha gonna do, may an inquiring mind ask?
The latest and the greatest Hi, I added one foot to the whole width of the layout. So the width not is 36" all over. Thank you all for your encouragement, support and your great help. Mo
