Track laying

[sarge42]

My layout started as a "super pretzel" and now I have been expanding. I added a piece of 4x4 plywood to the end of the set. I have two rails running side by side with one going up an incline and the other crossing under. My big diesels couldn't make the curve and kept derailing. I discovered I needed 22 inch radius tracks, but can't get the right configuration. Any ideas?

[edwardsutorik]

It sounds like you want to run two tracks out into the new addition, in the form of a loop. Or a "U". And that one crosses over the other while doing that.

You can't do that using 22" radius track.

I think the closest you can get is by having the two tracks make the loop without crossing. The outer one can be 22". The inner one cannot--more like 19", for clearance between the trains.

You could also have the two loops just stacked. Then you can have 22" above 22". But I think it's going to look way too weird--as in, not like a real railroad. And you're going to have to have them stacked for aways back into your old layout.

Or you can have just one 22" loop. And maybe a stub track(s) into the middle somehow.



Ed

[Christian]

You'd best test that 22" radius. Sometimes the locomotive will make it, but it will pull the cars off the track.

[sarge42]

Thanks Ed but I may have confused you (or me). The new section has two rails but are not necessarily next to each other. One goes up an incline and swings around and comes down the other side intersecting with the other track that went through a tunnel joining approximately 3 ft down the line into the super pretzel. Am I missing some kind of track combination?

[edwardsutorik]

Sarge,

I just can't visualize what you're working with. Can you post a picture of some kind?

Did you perhaps build the Atlas HO-8 layout, the Super Pretzel:


www.aergroup.net/files/TrackPlans/Atlas-HO/The_Super_Pretzel_Atlas_Book_9.jpg


Meanwhile, Christian's point is something you can look into. WILL your equipment be happy on 22" radius? It would suck to build some trackage you thought would handle your equipment, and then it won't. Better to check first.

Also, when you say "rails", I believe you mean "tracks", right? Cause EVERYTHING we play with has two rails.



Ed

[sarge42]

Hi again, yes the initial layout was the super pretzel. And yes by rail I meant track. I'll try to get you a picture although, I'm not sure how to attach it to this post.

Thanks for your help!

Rich

[sarge42]

Hi Ed, every photo I tried to send the forum said it was to big! I'm at a loss as hbk is to get you a picture!

Rich

[edwardsutorik]

Rich,

It may be more work than you want to do, but you can PM me, and we can exchange e-mail addresses, and you can send it to me direct.



Ed

[Christian]

May 11, 2020 13:55:59 GMT -8 sarge42 said:

every photo I tried to send the forum said it was too big!

There is an image size restriction on what can be directly uploaded to this forum. Since Donnell pays for the proboard photo hosting out of his own pocket most of us don't push it. Instead use an image hosting service. You can link to your photos on that service and use none of the forum's bandwidth.

I strongly recommend Imgur. Free but ad-supported. I don't get nags about my ad blocker. I'm not bombarded with email from Imgur. It is also available for ios and android. I have not fooled with those apps enough to be comfortable with them. Once you are registered all you need to use is in the upper right corner under your user name. "Images" is what you want. On that page, you can drag and drop from your own computer. On the phone app it uploads from your phone's gallery. Once you have your imgur image gallery it is fairly simple. Click on the image you want to post. You'll get a preview window that has a list of posting formats on the right. For Atlas Forum choose "BBCode." copy and then go back to Atlas and paste into your post. I've never posted from the Imgur app on my phone or tablet and a quick look/see tells me that some study is necessary.

Here's what BBCode looks like for the photo following this bunch of text. I took off the bracket at the beginning and end of the url.
img]https://i.imgur.com/2PxRdMk.jpg[/img

Now, size. I resize on my desktop before uploading to Imgur. Imgur has a resize tool, but I haven't needed to figure it out. I usually size so that the largest dimension of my photo is 800 pixels. That means most folks can see the whole image without scrolling sideways. I think you could use 1024 and be OK. The photo below is 917X777.

Posting photos is a stumble for a lot of folks. Before I used Imgur my photo posts were hit or miss and frequently took a lot of time to debug. (And still take time because I didn't paste the url for the actual photo correctly and didn't notice until I posted. "Edit" is great!)