Unitram and road plates together make downtown and burb's

[cteno4]

ok i see what you are getting at. sure you can use the unitram straight sections to run down a street then attach any of the single or double track unitrak sections off of those. both the unitram and unitrak use the same connectors and 33mm track spacing that works for large cars. generally where trains go down streets its usually a straight shot on the street sections (like downtown oakland where the trains go through jack london square area).

 

i would avoid using the unitram curve sections for large cars like this as they might nick each other as they are tight curves and the tracks are not parallel through the curves, but come to a 22mm spacing half way (45 degrees) through a 90 degree curve, then back out to 33mm spacing.

 

you can also roll your own street road/rail sections pretty easily if you are doing only straight sections. you can use foamcore and styrene or chipboard to build up around the tracks easily and bring your roadway right up tot he edge of the tracks. between the rails you can use strips of 1/4" wide 040 thick styrene you can get at the hobby shop. this will fill the between the rails area just right between the spike heads (they sort of align the strip well) an give just enough flange clearance for the wheels.

 

you can then either paint the top for your road and your road marking or you can even print out your roads from the computer where you can make road textures/colors for your kind of surface, manholes, oil and tire stains, road markings etc, then just glue these down. again as long as its along straight sections this is really simple, but on curves its a real mess!!!

 

i like using the print out method as you can keep playing with road ideas and markings till you are happy and then just use that or change it later easily. painting road markings can be a real pain in the butt in n scale. there are some threads here about making road markings and road textures some interesting ways of using various things like fun foam and pin tape here

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,4177.0.html

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,1022.0.html

 

http://www3.telus.net/public/crowley/ashphalt_roads.htm

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Nightshade,

 

Hey I really screwed up and got things backwards in my head. the straight sections of the unitram are 25mm spacing, not the standard 33mm spacing. only on the curves does it swing out to the 33mm spacing. I dont know how i could have gotten that so backwards when i chimed in here! havnt played with the unitram in months here and its all in the box right now! dont know what i was thinking there, it obviously would be strange to have things narrow on the curve -- outa my gourd!

 

good news is that there is a new kato track set V53 coming out in late october which will do exactly what you want. it takes things from standard ballested 33mm plate track down to 25mm spaced road track for a block then back out to 33mm plate track. of course you can add more street track in the middle if you want that area longer.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10150117

 

again sorry for getting the 25/33 flipped, its always fun as those are the ttrak standards as well and folks are always getting those backwards!

 

you can also do a 25 to 33 transisiton by just using a bunch of 29mm sections in a row, sort of makes a bit of flex track, but this one looks to be a lot more graceful.

 

25mm spacing should be plenty on the straight aways to make sure your cars dont bump. you can check this as you get the 25mm track spacing if you just put two pieces of unitrak right next to one another with the roadbed touching.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

You can spend $110-$120 for the V53 and change the track center from 33mm to 25mm.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10150117a2/20/2

[nightshade]

not a problem just wanted to know

if i can use that ..... its just an idea

for puch pull operations going through a city

like Amtrack California and surfliner going through

mille of the city street (or Sandiego Coaster)

thinking about making 4 sections of 2x4 California

surfliner coming out of la to Sandiego

and need a city street track plates (wich looks like

unitram would be perfect for it LOL)

 

sorry for hijacking ur tread

[cteno4]

should work fine, just have to do the transition between your main line track spacing and the unitram's 25mm. again a number of different ways to do it. flex track would be fine as well.

 

what are you planning on using for your main lines?

 

jeff

[nightshade]

probably a double track

will see ......

[cteno4]

probably a double track

will see ......

 

you mean double track unitrak?

 

jeff

[nightshade]

yup  (need to draw it out to see what exactly i gonna do).