belg said:
Woodie I just read thru this entire thread for the first time and really like what you've done in the yard, since you hand laid all your track I guess stock pieces would not be available to create the same effect?? I also never heard of the high speed switches #20 I believe someone said Who makes this or is this a joke to suck in the inexperienced?? Could you or someone else fill me in on how a track is designed to go one way only and in a dead end yard how would you lay track to put your loco at the other end? I like to build models but don't really know anything about trains and would like to learn more. Thanks Pat
Belg,
Sorry to dissappoint, but it's not handlaid track. It's all Peco flextrack and Peco large radius turnouts. And the #20 turnout was a leg pull!! hehehehe
My "dead end" yard (passenger platform) is for passenger trains that have a driving cab at both ends. No need to turn the loco up to the other end. Howver, if you look at my trackplan, and the train arrives on the "up" line (according to the arrow) into the dead-end platform, you switch the turnouts, and depart onto the other track ("down" line) according to the arrow on the plan.
On really high speed trains, the turnouts can be more than 100 yards long. To represent this in a smal scale, (HO) would mak just one turnout about 4 feet long!!! and they would be too big to fit on your layout.
The "number" of a turnout (#20 say) mean the amount of deviation (curve) from the straight portion of track. So a #20 turnout would be curved away from the straight track 1 inch in 20 inches of straight track, or 1 yard on 100 yards etc. A number 6 (#6) turnout would deviate 1 inch every 6 inches. So I hope you can see that a #20 would be VERY long.