Kato viaduct points.

[Robsr]

I’m building a layout with several loops on a 19ft x 9ft baseboard with access “wells” 

Two of the loops will be Kato double viaduct and concrete slab track through the station to try and represent HS1 as I’ll be running my Eurostars on it. 
I need to make one or two passing loops to allow for storage of other trains.

i know that Kato don’t make viaduct pieces to enable this but would it work if I went from a viaduct piece onto a viaduct station extension piece to allow for the width of the point and then back onto double viaduct pieces again?

Has anyone done this and has anyone got any pics please? 
Thanks in advance 

Edited October 2 by Robsr

[cteno4]

Yes the Kato station plates let you use regular Unitrak track pieces and interlock the plates with double and single viaduct track pieces. The plate system is designed to allow for a bump out of one of the straight tracks to wrap around a Kato island platform. With a single plate width you could use points to create a passing track to the side of two main line tracks. The double plate width is designed to be wide enough to allow passing tracks on either side of the center two mainline tracks with enough room to have Kato island platforms between the mainline center tracks and the passing tracks on each side. If you don’t want the platforms there may be just enough room to add an additions passing track on one side to give you the two mainlines and 3 passing tracks and pull the two passing tracks in as close as possible (this does make a hard S curve though). The placate sets and extension sets come with side walls (low, high, and high with windows) as well, but they can be pricy to use the plates for longer platforms.

 

you can roll your own plate base with a three layers of materials to created something that is the right thickness to match the plates and had a layer that’s easy to poke in the pins on the bottom edge of the walls to hold the walls on. The layers are a base of 1/8” masonite, center layer of regular 3/16” foam core, and a top layer of Formica. This odd layering works well when laminated together with contact cement as it makes a very light but very stiff and stable from warping board. For the Formica I used the home despot gray granite pattern that looks just like Kato unitrack ballast. The foam core layer is right where the Kato station walls support pins would go into Kato plates so you can easily push the wall pins into the foamcore layer to hold the walls in the correct location. Using plywood, even 7 ply Baltic birch, or super kiln dried and clear dimensional boards planed down to the proper thickness can get small warps in them with time that can cause issues. Of course using wood alone would work fine if you plan to put wood supports under it with the platform screwed down to it and the supports firmly connected to your layout baseboard. I made a 4’ platform that is the width of single Kato plate and it stood up for years of use on the club layout and still is in the basement and totally flat almost 20 years later! I also made a 3m station with double passing tracks and island platforms (basically a standard 2 plate wide Kato platform station) that we used that layout and a later one. You can see it here in this picture.

 

you can make your own low walls like Kato viaduct walls from thin strip of like 020 styrene. The little vertical lines are easy to add with slight scoring of the wall vertically at the spacing on the double viaduct walls.

 

jeff

[Robsr]

Thanks Jeff.
Your pic helps to envisage what I’m trying to do and it looks like I can do what I’m trying to achieve as I can run two passing loops , one on each side, within the confines of the extra width of the plates. 
The window panels are probably going to be kept for another project on the layout.

 

[cteno4]

Your welcome. The double wide Kato plate station gets you the two mainline and two passing sidings and platforms in that width. The Kato plates can get expensive for big stations and can be hard to source at times. I got fortunate and picked up three Kato viaduct station kits barely used off email long ago for a song!

 

jeff

[Robsr]

I got two extension sets from eBay a fortnight ago.

in just going to connect them to the viaduct track as I’m not using the viaduct station. I’m having a ground level station with six loops and some bay platforms but need somewhere to store 2 passenger trains, hence the passing loop idea. 

[cteno4]

Each extension set gets you 2x 248mm platforms, so you will need a number of them to get it long enough for your passing tracks. Each set gets you 248mm length. You need two sets for the points at each ends, then some in the middle for as long a train you want to store. I’m pretty sure you can use double viaduct in the middle and then single viaducts on each side and will line up I think using the r714 curves onto the turnouts. 
 

jeff

[Robsr]

Thanks for the info. I was thinking of either running a double viaduct through the middle with single viaducts each side or running two double viaducts side by side with one loop and one main line in each.