Any advice towards viaducts?

[NozomiFan]

Thinking about diving in on the V12 system...

I already have the V11 system.

Title says all...

Really the V12 is for a mobile layout, as 2 times the permanent layouts have failed.

[David]

Just make sure you have enough space. With the viaduct layout it's much harder to remove sections to reduce size (since that run length is needed to get the track high enough to drive under), and it's also risky to put it right up to the edge of the table.

 

The V12 set is the same as the V11 set in terms of concrete ties and banked curves. I'm fairly certain the V11 set manual includes the V11+V12 tracks plans (if it doesn't post and I can look at scanning the track plans from the V14 manual, which has all of them). The V13 set (elevated loop) is a little different in that it has concrete slab track (no railroad ties).

[NozomiFan]

Yeah, the V11 has the track plans. I might need to dig for the manual.

[to2leo]

I love the V12 and V11.  The wider radius really makes the train looks better when at a curve.

 

Now if Kato release V51 or V52...

[Darklighter]

Aren't the curves that are included in the V12 set available separately?

Is the V12 only intended to be a transition between V11 and V13 (if you want a longer elevated section)?

[KenS]

The V11/V12 is what I started out with, although I ended up building a simple oval with ground-level front and elevated rear because I didn't have space to make the supported track plans (I added to the two sets by the time I was done since I needed a second viaduct curve to make my oval). The V11/V12 alone is somewhat limited in what you can do because it asumes you only need 180-degrees of elevated curve.

 

But the track looks great.  It's what I'm using now as the outer curve of my River Crossing scene (photos below; I never took any good photos of the original oval).  The banked effect is really nice.  It looked good on the viaduct too, although I ended up not using that in my current layout.

 

BTW, the curves come is 22.5-degree adapter sections (flat to banked) called Easement Sections (available separately as 20-182 for ground and 20-545 for viaduct) and 45-degree banked sections (20-181 and 20-544).  This can limit the combinations, and if you're planning something, using track-planning software to work it out before buying anything is a good idea.  The bit you need the V12 for are the gound-to-viaduct ramps, which are short (124mm) adapters to lift the rails up to the edge of the viaduct. I don't believe those are separately available.

 

As a side note: the track on the viaduct is actually the ground-level track.  It just snaps in.  Unsnapping it without breaking the snaps on the track is hard to do, but it's what I did to recycle some of the viaduct track into ground-level use.  It also means that if you find some old 45-degree non-banked slab-track viaducts with the same radius, you can snap new concrete-tie track into them to make compatible banked track (this works for straights too). That's actually how I made my second curve since the banked viaduct track wasn't available separately at the time.

[Darklighter]

Thanks Ken. I'm thinking about building something like this: http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk/images/Kato_Track/612-30-3-09.jpg , but I don't like the single track viaduct track. So I would have to buy at least a V12 set, some extra viaduct track (maybe V13) and a V16 (I already have a V11, 2 x V1, 2 x V7, V3).

A quite expensive endeavor... 

[KenS]

Watch out for clearance issues when putting elevated track next to ground-level track.  When I planned my River Crossing scene I was originally going to use viaduct for the outer loop and ground-level for the inner, but I ran into problems (don't recall exactly what; it may have been an issue with catenary poles rather than the track itself). That's one reason why I dropped my plans to use viaduct track on the layout, outside of the station itself.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

They sell the single viaduct in 381mm Kato 20-540. That works for long nose bullets and long cars.

[bigford]

oh oh oh NooB question~~~ 

My viaduct station has no track on it or in it.. is there any other

viaduct stuff sold like that or do they all have the track in them???

[KenS]

The viaduct straights and curves have track installed in them.  I think the "signal" section of single-track viaduct may be an exception (empty viaduct you snap one of the Kato signal track sections into) but I've never bought one.  I don't think there are others without track, but I don't have a lot of experience with viaduct track.

 

The viaduct station (set or expansion) is just a flat platform that you place normal unitrack atop, and which can clip to viaducts or bridges (anything using the white S-joiners) at the ends. The good thing about that is that you can create a variety of track plans for a station, using swtiches to split one track out to a passing siding, or curves or the new V15 set to go around an island platform.

[linkey]

if you buy the overhead station pieces they do not come with the track, but the V12 and 13 sets do. But love the KATO youtube of the E5 going through.