Model Railway Forum

Hi All,

I'm planning and designing a new layout. For many reasons, I want to ensure I have no curve no tighter than a 3ft radius.

I've got some tight spaces that i'm hoping to use, but need to see if I can fit a 3ft radius curve in, specifically to get the railway to turn 90 Degrees in one place.

to visually test this, if I created a template out of cardboard, starting with a 3ft piece of string and a pencil, and making a curve arc of 90 Degrees, and then marking 2 lines 8.25mm from the centre on either side... would this be accurate?

Regards,

Steve D.

Sounds OK to me. 3ft radius to the centre of the track. I’d be tempted to use a piece of wood with holes in it to take a pencil. String isn’t ideal, it can stretch and wrap around the pivot point.

Thats a fair 'point' to make. 3ft from a nail to a hole for pencil....

job done.

I'm wondering if I can get away with anything less than 3ft, I'm guessing i'm only going to be losing longer locos with fixed driving wheels such as a large steam engine... hmmmm looks like a rivarossi big-boy can just about squeak around 18inch curves, so I should be able to get away with 24" without an issue.

The area I want this for is hidden anyway, so as long as it navigates it without coming off the track...

i'm rambling now, lol.

I just bought a cheap (£9.99) angle level from Lidl which also has a pencil and compass points in the ends of the adjustable arms making it into a large drawing compass.



Previous to this I have used the wooden lath with a centre hole for a screw and standard radius holes for a pencil.