Suburban Station And Train Depot

[katoftw]

Just make sure your trackplan can fit in using C280.

 

Tomix

280 + 280 + 18.5 + 18.5 = 597
curve + curve + straight + railbed = total

[cteno4]

Actually only one track bed is needed as the radius is measured from the center of the track, not the inside roadbed edge. Why I said a cm budded with c280 on a 600 board.

 

for falling off the edge, I’ve had this happen really rarely and unless you have a good like 3-4cm a train will likely roll off anyway with a larger buffer if it comes off while running. could add some small posts along the edge every few cm and try to make them some scenic thing or even a wall to catch trains. On the cold club layout we had one drive right at the edge and we always worried about a train going over or encountering a small finger at a show there so we put a 1” high clear acrylic strip across that area for protection, but after no incidences we stopped adding those as they just look bad even if clear.
 

We have never had a train go over the edge of the layouts in 20 years. We did have one shinkansen go off the end of the yard, but that was due to someone leaving the power supply on at a good voltage and flipping a point to give power (and he was a bit to far from the throttle and startled to shut it off in time) to a train that barreled down the hard and right over the end stops and of course with solid coupling it kept dragging itself over the edge. After that the whole yard power got a deadman’s push button so as not to repeat this disaster.
 

@Sir Madog those wooden canvases were what I was talking about earlier. Only down side on a big one may be a bit dippy in the center if not crosspieces as they use pretty thin ply on them nowdays. These also work fabulously and economically for smaller modular or sectional setups. But a simple cross brace glued in or layer of foam on top would take care of that!
 

jeff

[katoftw]

I only included one 18.5mm trackbed in the calculations.

 

The other 18.5mm straight is the piece added to the outer curve to give the 55.5mm track space for an island platform at the back.

 

Yup if running the outer rail 6.25mm from the edge. A barrier like clear acrylic 25mm high is good practice.

Edited March 29 by katoftw

[cteno4]

Mia culpa, I missed that in the plan.

 

while maybe a good practice I’ve never had a train go over and had tracks close to the edge in layouts and many temp setups for decades along with 20 years with club running, so the risk seems very tiny. 
 

small scenic wall up to truck height may be enough. The plex really looks bad at first I thought it was the sawn top I had just sanded with 200 on the edge sander. So I went ahead and polished one down and even with a nice, clear top edge it still just looked ugly.
 

jeff

[RS18U]

@Sir Madog just a thought from the wild Canadian west.  Here a lot of our railways have barbed wire fences along the right of ways to keep wayward cattle from getting turned into buzzard food.  Something like this could work for a line close to an edge.

 

Use something like styrene rod, or maybe brass/aluminum tubing, as the fence posts.  Make them long enough to stick into the layout base firmly enough; could be a press fit for easy removal or glued in.  Drill 3 holes and string a fine wire/fishing line through the holes and tie down at the ends.  Paint.  Looks good (and much better than acrylic) and is functional to stop trains from going off the edge our flat Earth.

 

Looking forward to seeing how this all turns out!

[Rez]

Hi,

 

Can the OP provide a track list for the layout shown in the first post ? I'm trying to build a samilar one using KATO and failing miserably as I'm new to this hobby. I'm aiming for 27"x 78" hollow core door so I got extra space for scenery and bits and pieces.