Beginners question on Kato N track

[mp44_tom]

Hi guys

 

a (stupid) beginners question here 🫢

 

I got the M1 and M2 starter sets from Kato and i wanted to make an L - shaped layout but i ran into some trouble….

 

The sets have the R315-45 turns (20-120) but when i put the in an L shape they will not connect….

 

Am i doing something wrong here ?

 

I’m using scarm to make the layout and already have tried some different pieces but i can’t figure it out….. Like i said, I’m an absolute beginner ☺️

 

here the layout

 

 

Thanks for answering or responding

Tom

 

 

[UnfinishedKit]

That is unfortunately just how it works. 

On one side you have 315x4mm =1,260 mm and on the other you have 315x2+248x2+124 =1,250 mm so you have a 10mm deficit on one side.
 

That’s actually a rather annoying deficit, you’ve got 2 s64s but you need 5 to make up the deficit. 

 

If you look at all the Ls on the Kato track plan page they all fold the ends of the L back further in which eliminates the deficit. 
 

https://www.katomodels.com/unitrackplan/index

[cteno4]

No dumb questions here, only those not asked and you bang your head on!

 

Yes this is an issue with adding inside corners like this with track geometries. Outside of simpler ovals you usually end up needing to fill in a bit somewhere to get things perfect. There are options of the sliding expansion track piece that can get you about 30mm of play in length to help in odd situations like this where you don’t want to find a combo of the short bits of track to make up an odd length. The one thing with these is they should not go near a curve as some wheelsets can detrain hitting the expansion track near a curve, but in a good straightaway they work decently. For a more permanent setup you and pretty easily cut Unitrak to custom lenghts by cutting out the needed shortening lenght out of the roadbed in the center of the piece of track. Then slide one end of the road bed down and glue the two pieces of roadbed together and nip off the excess rail off the one end.

 

For temporary layouts you actually can get quite a bit of give on a larger loop and can usually fudge a few mm with no issues.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[MeTheSwede]

In real life you can build this layout because the track has some flexibility at the joints. Computer programs don't take this into account because it's difficult to describe this effect mathematically.

[Wolf]

Yeah, just like @MeTheSwede said, when you put all togehter, the joints will "bend" an unnoticably bit, likely in the curve sections, and the track will click together. I would be amazed if you'd actually notice it IRL.

I recommend slapping it together once for a test, run some trains over it, and then you can determine if the bending is neglectable to you or not.

[mp44_tom]

Thanks very much for the reply guys…. Indeed it isn’t noticable….and the train runs smoothly over it….,

 

no problem whatsover……

 

Here a small youtube film….. just testing the EX-CSB1 on a DD51

 

Tom

 

[Little-Kinder]

5 hours ago, mp44_tom said:

Thanks very much for the reply guys…. Indeed it isn’t noticable….and the train runs smoothly over it….,

 

no problem whatsover……

 

Here a small youtube film….. just testing the EX-CSB1 on a DD51

 

Tom

 

FYI, if you want to buy an elevation, do not buy the kato one, it's expensive and not that great, i struggled to get a nice 2% grade, just buying the woodland scenic incline starter would be much easier imo

[katoftw]

This is the problem using Kato unitrack.  Geometrically their track pieces don't line up.

 

Tomix does. 

[cteno4]

No thier geometry is fine it’s just doing inside corners gets things out of line. You will have the same problem doing similar things with tomix track geometry.

 

jeff

[mp44_tom]

Indeed, i also tried it with Tomix rails , but they also don’t connect…..

 

Well, like you guys said, it is barely noticable (read not noticable) so no problem !

 

Tom

[Wolf]

16 hours ago, Little-Kinder said:

just buying the woodland scenic incline starter would be much easier imo

I absolutely second this statement.

[cteno4]

Or even just sawing up blocks of 1x2 dimensional lumber to your needed sizes. Small hand saw an a little miter box does this fine. They can be cleaned up and painted as concrete piers for later use as well. I made a ton of them at 2mm intervals for one of our club members who loved grades and he went to town. 

 

Jeff

[MeTheSwede]

On 2/26/2025 at 9:08 AM, cteno4 said:

No thier geometry is fine it’s just doing inside corners gets things out of line. You will have the same problem doing similar things with tomix track geometry.

 

jeff

 

Actually it's possible to build this layout with Tomix track using various curve radii and have a perfect connection. The straight sections should be twice the lenght of the curve radius.

 

With 280mm radius curves the straights should be 560mm long, which is two 280mm pieces each. 280*2=560.

With 243mm curves the straights should be 486mm long, which you get with these 4 straight pieces: 2*158.5+99+70=486.

With 317mm radius curves the straights should be 634mm long, which you get with these 4 straight pieces: 4*158.5=634.

With 354mm radius curves the straights should 708mm long, which is possible with: 99*5+72.5*2+35+33=708.

With 391mm radius curves the straights should be 782mm long, which is possible with 158.2*2+140+72.5*4+35=782.