Shinkansen/town layout

[oeyhamre]

Hi folks!

This is my new project, still only moving stuff around in AnyRail. Feel it is starting to come together  :)

Any coments is welcome.

 

 

[kvp]

Interesting. Especially that you have a reversing loop configuration because of the small connecting bypass section right below the shinkansen station. It seems to me that you are using Kato tracks and turnouts, which are not fully power routing. This means you have to isolate the both rails at one end of the connecting section and both rails on both tracks around the crossing, then reverse the polarity of one of the feeds together with the throwing of the two turnouts that select the bypass.

[oeyhamre]

Thank you for your comments. And yes, the plan is to use Kato unitrack throughout. Thank you for pointing out that I need to isolate and reverse power, had not thought about that (still a bit green concerning stuff beyond basic round and round layouts :) ). Fortunately, the Kato 20-220/221 turnouts I plan to use can easily be made isolating by moving a couple of screws. Kato also have isolating joiners you can use.

The layout was very much inspired by The Japan Rail Modelers of Washington DC and their larger and more complicated layout here:  http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/layout/layout.1.0.html

[kvp]

Kato turnouts are isolating, but not fully isolating, which means isolated and power routed on the outside rails too. That can be recognised by seeing cut rails with isolation on the two outside rails, like on Tomix turnouts. You need the built in isolation to be able to stop a train on the bypass, but you need two isolating joiners at the three indicated places to avoid a short. Other than that, you only have to throw the reverser switch together with the double turnout control switch and afaik there is an accessory for that. Otherwise it looks like a fun layout.

[Mudkip Orange]

Beyond the reverse loop, you're going to want to avoid reverse curves without at least 186mm of tangent in between.

[ozman2009]

Just to add to that last post, reverse curves can be a source of derailment. At least on model railways - you see reverse curves on the prototype, but they don't seem to cause derailments.

[kvp]

If the track is laid properly, then good rolling stock won't derail on an S curve. Most turnouts work as S curves too in the diverging direction, so if a train derails on one, then the train is in a bad condition and should be fixed. Banked S curves can be a problem, especially with rigid tightlock couplers, but completly flat tracks rarely cause any problems if the curves are otherwise not too tight for the train. Of course for badly constructed or assembled model trains, S curves, turnouts with S curves and turnouts after any kind of curve should be avoided. Keeping all these rules within the space above would mean a boring oval without anything interesting.

[zartan]

What kvp said may be true in theory but in practice S curves made of unitrack caused me endless problems on my layout and I wound up redesigning everything to get rid of them.  Along with getting rid of the '4' turnouts and replacing them with '6'.  

[oeyhamre]

None of my other trains show this problem, but I recently got a Kato E6 Akita Shinkansen 7 car train, and this is prone to derailing in S curves, and it is also very sensitive to any joins not completely level (does not like inclines at all, so an S curve in the incline made it derail every time). I think the main issue is that it is a very low riding set, and testing it on a perfectly level boring oval caused no problems, even at high speed (348mm, 45 degree curves). This is one of the reasons I`ve chosen a separate Shinkansen track in this coming setup. The inner track will only be run with shorter commuter/local trains, and one freight train.

As for isolating the bypass section, isolated joiners it is, thank you for your input kvp.

[HantuBlauLOL]

That's why speed limit existed..

 

Anyway you could fix it by adding weight to the cars, or adding a spring to the root of your coupler.

[cteno4]

Yep the shinkansens are the ones that will be the biggest issue with S curves. The 186 in the middle has solved the issues in the jrm layouts. 124 sorta works, but not perfect...

 

Cheers

 

Jeff