Our train club is participating at the local community college Trains For The Holidays exhibit with 2 modular layouts. Of course we switch out locomotives regularly but we typically have 4-5 trains running 6-7 hours per day on each layout....N & HO. There are ZERO derailments due to good trackwork. Each Atlas rail joint is well-fitted & filed flush and Atlas turnouts are ground throw with a positive lock. Easements are used with all curves and no curves end at a turnout. We spend more time checking and re-checking (and then re-checking again) track during installation than any other facet of layout construction. So if you're presently building a layout, be certain to allocate amble time to make things right & resist the urge to have running trains ASAP. Patience and precision are rewarded with trouble-free operation as many experienced modelers have already learned. Cam [ December 22, 2005, 02:40 AM: Message edited by: conagher ]
I remember such experiences from NTRAK days. We were fortunate that there'd be very few bugs. Which were quickly work out. We'd show up in force, during the setup times. And do a lot of running then. So all would be ready to go. However, even with trackwork well done, there is still the odd engine or car, that will need wheelsets changed, or re-gauged. Or even onthe best of track, they'll end up causing a few moments..... Boxcab E50
Good track work always leads to less headaches! Back when I was an active member in my Fathers HO modular club, myself and another one of my buddies in the group, would stay hours after the initial set-up tinkering with all the joints, humps, dips, etc. Those extra hours (and our lack of a social life) paid out huge dividends over the course of the operating sessions. Since we've left, my Father does nothing but complian about how the layout has nothing but problems because, they want to run more than check everything out first.
All too true, but too late for me. I found that I improved my track laying as time went by and I became more experienced. Eventually I will get back to all those older areas. I did have the sense to have spiral easements (Cadrail) and no S curves, so my main issue will just be replacement. I firmly believe that the easements are a big help even on N scale 24 inch radius curves.
Re: references in some replies to "easements". I know what they are, but not sure how to incorporate them in my (first time) layout. I'm using Atlas Flextrack & Custom Line manual turnouts (#4's) with 13" radius curves (two on the mainline). Most of remaining track is straight, with one passing siding and two industrial spurs, and one reversing loop. Should I use the "extra" 6" curved tracks, which come with each turnout, as the "easement" for my sidings & spurs?
Using the 19" tracks that comes with the turnouts is a cheap and crude transition curve, better than going tangent to 13" curve, but it should be possible to get even better with flex track: if you pin one end down as the tangent (straight), and pin the other end down with the 13" radius, the bit in the middle will "naturally" assume a curve that varies from straight to curved. The trick then is picking the curve centre for the 13" radius John Armstrong's "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" has some nice notes on how to do easements.
I use a masonite spline to form the easement. You can lay it out engineering like (like the railroads do) but it really isn't necessary. An easement will take more room than a regular curve with no tangent easement. Now starting a google search. Here are templates: http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/001/647dsuww.asp Randy Gordon-Gilmore's software for generating easement templates. (Randy Gordon-Gilmore and Dick Billings built the Fine N Scale CB&Q streamliner. Can't remember the name.) http://jdb.psu.edu/trains/eas/old-webpage.html More: http://www.trackplanning.com/easements.htm [ December 23, 2005, 07:33 AM: Message edited by: sapacif ]
I don't think I have ever created good enough track work that netted me no derailments.. I don't think I will for a while, too...
I was never in the club in a near by town, but.... The N scale Guys ran very long trains and hardly had a derailment. The HO guys ran shorter trains and had many issues. All the people at shows stood around the N scale setup. I heard that the HO guys split the club up to keep the N scalers away. Good trackwork is essential!
Easements are one of those easy-to-do things that make a huge improvement in appearance and tracking of the trains. My opinion is that for a given space to make a curve, easements+smaller final radius beats a constant-bigger-radius-curve every time. Looks much better, and no 'lurch' entering and exiting the curve. On easements, body-mount couplers on locos also tend not to knock truck-mounted coupler cars off the track either. Check out how to do it per the instructions above, it's well worth the very small effort it takes to use them. As was noted above, it's easy to do a quasi-easement with sectional track as well, just start with larger radius curves leading to the final radius, and then back out again.
Any new l;ayout should be planned with easements which will lessen the likelihood of any derailments. Stay cool and run steam......
Bob How does one do easements with Unitrack? And from another thread -- did you have issues with the original wiring on the JJJ&E that required rewiring? Al
Easements with Unitrack...per John Sing (atsf_arizona): As was noted above, it's easy to do a quasi-easement with sectional track as well, just start with larger radius curves leading to the final radius, and then back out again. I am not a unitrack user, but this makes sense to me.
Bob How does one do easements with Unitrack? And from another thread -- did you have issues with the original wiring on the JJJ&E that required rewiring? Al </font>[/QUOTE]No I didn't have any issues with the original wiring on the JJJ&E. I just wanted to use the rest of the Posi-connectors that I had purchased. There was no sense in letting sit around in a box and get forgotten. I used the same wiring. I just used Posi-connectors to connect the original feeders to the original bus line. As far as easements go with Unitrack, you take a razor back saw and cut pieces of Unitrack to make an easement. That's a good use for a razorback saw. It makes a nice clean cut. How would you make an easement otherwise? Stay cool and run steam.....
Speaking of Unitrack, I use a 13-3/4 (20-130) curved section at the beginning of each curve as an easement while the rest of the curve pieces are 12-3/8 (20-120) or smaller. It's not as fancy as the "engineered" easements but it makes for a smooth transition from straight track to curved.
You could also add a straight section after your 13 3/4 inch curved section followed by more curved sections of varying radii. You can cut the desired lengths from full sections of Unitrack. Stay cool and run steam....
Hi, all, Here's a track diagram of my Santa Fe "Peavine Line" 4' x 4' layout. You cans see the N scale Unitrack curve sections and quasi-easement radius in inches noted by that section of track: Note that the Kato Unitrack N scale #6 turnouts have a curve radius of 28", and the #4 turnouts are 19". The Kato Unitrack, due to a fairly wide selection of curved radiuses, makes quasi-easements easier. Atlas Code 55 sectional has similar capabilities as that line also has a wide selection of radiuses. The non-easement-ed curves on the far right are inside a tunnel and not visible. Not surprisingly, that is the *exact* location where the nose body-mounted-coupler Kato PA1's knock trailing non-Micro-Trains equipped truck-mounted coupler passenger cars off the rails. I have to run certain M-T tuned and equipped cars for certain loco-car combinations to avoid the problem at that point. However, that isn't necessary at the other 12 3/4" radius curve at the lower left of the layout. Same body-mount-coupler / truck mount-coupler combo has no problems there because of the easement entering and leaving that curve, even though the radius is the same. Hence, the value of easements. (smile) A reverse angle of what that track planning resulted in looked like this in Aug 2005: I arrived at this track plan literally by laying out Kato Unitrack on the floor and playing with various combinations until I came up with the above plan to fit my available 4' x 4' space. Chose this final version primarily because it had the best appearance. The non-easemented versions that I tried clearly looked a lot less prototypical. What I learned from planning on the floor, was to that best appearance came from using as large a radius entering the curve as you have room for, decrease from there to your final radius, then increase it back out. In addition to easements, this concept of gentle curves (instead of using pure straight track) has a name in model railroading, it's known as the "cosmetic curve". Idea was noted that cosmetic curves look a lot better compared to straight-track + abrupt curve types of combinations. The definitive, easily readable, instructive book on this topic of both easements and cosmetic curves, which describes how to easily lay out easements if you're using flextrack, is easily available at LHS, Amazon, or from Kalmbach. It is "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" by John Armstrong, one of our hobby's great master layout designers: Hope this helps! Try easements and you'll be happy you did. Happy Holidays, enjoy, all. [ December 26, 2005, 09:44 AM: Message edited by: atsf_arizona ]
John: You've done a great job of planning and modeling the Santa Fe Peavine Line utilizing Unitrack. Stay cool and run steam.....
