Model Railway Forum

Hi All,

In the process of re-designing part of my layout I thought about adding a station with part of the platform being curved. I'm already up to an outer radius of 530mm, which gives an inner radius of 480mm - it just doesn't look right. Is there any general rule for this type of station layout.

Best Rgds,
Dave R.

I would say no. All you need to do is make sure that the longest rolling stock and that with the biggest overhang at the front on a curve doesn’t collide with the platform.


It’s not always the most obvious piece that will be the problem.

Due to the space needed to accommodate the overhang of rolling stock, a platform on a ‘standard’ radius will always look ‘wrong’.
This is mine on, I think, R3&4 curves but by putting the platform behind the track, from the viewing point, the stock hides the gap.

20181202_144435 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

The only way it will look right is to place the platform on a long sweeping curve but unless you have the space, this is unlikely to be practical in anything other than N gauge.

Have a look at Houndogs’s ‘Mountgeenan’ thread, his station is on sweeping curves.

Thanks Steve, at least I'm not alone in my thinking. I'll certainly have a look at Houndogs layout.

Best Rgds,
Dave R.

As others have said, curved platforms do tend to be a problem, especially with long modern coaches, due to the gaps between the coach and the platform.

When I was designing my layout, unfortunately there wasn't anywhere else to put my station, so I just have to put up with it.

With regard to clearances, I made a template roughly cutting a piece of paper to the profile of the trackwork (in my case 3rd radius for my outer line and 2nd for my inner line) and placing it alongside the track. I then sellotaped a pencil to my longest coach (in the middle of the coach for the inner platform and on the leading end of the coach for the outer platform) and ran the coaches along, producing a line where the coach was fouling. I then used this to cut and position my platform.

That is a good idea but don’t forget the front of locos overhang a lot on curves.

I thought I had left sufficient gaps after making a template as described previously, and everything was fine with my rolling stock until I bought a new Dapol Class 52 Western, which has a huge front valance which swings much further than another other piece of rolling stock i possess....... fortunately my card based platforms were easily trimmed with a Stanley knife but surely would have been a much bigger issue with something more elaborate.

My disaster was with a King class loco. Front jammed on the platform.

Walkingthedog wrote: ↑Sat Feb 22, 2020 7:52 pm My disaster was with a King class loco. Front jammed on the platform.

Same with my King on Low Ghyll. Fortunately I hadn't screwed the platform down so I was able to slide it back. Passengers do now need a small cantilever bridge to clear the gap.

My problem wasn’t with platforms but a trackside cliff face that worked for all my stock until I got a streamlined Coronation with a huge front overhang that required a severe rework of the scenery for clearance.

I have to agree even on 4th rad curves necessary platform gaps are unrealistic compared to prototype platforms on curves.