Drevant. Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Hello everyone, thanks for adding me as a new member of this great forum. I found this double figure 8 track plan on another forum and I'm very tempted to build it. I think I could add a few points. I'm a big fan of roundy-round layout and I'm absolutely not going for realism. All your advices and comments are welcome. Thanks. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold imt Posted October 31, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 31, 2019 Simple questions (perhaps hard answers). Why build this - yes its roundy roundy, but 1 roundy interferes with the other - to what purpose? There are no facilities - stations, goods sheds, loco sheds etc. etc - do you not want them? This might do for Scalextric but is it a railway? If you have restricted space - the traditional way would be a double cucuit with a crossover or two and a station/ goods yard in the middle. I'll get shouted at again - but go and buy a Peco layout plan book or something similar to look at. Plenty of people on here will help if you give your maximum sizes, whether the layout is accessible all round, whether you want a station etc. 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCB Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 You can build it, probably, though it will look ugly as hell and need a lot of rail bending in the vertical plane, The curved track needs to bend so both ends are level in cross section in the horizontal plane, if laid on a gradient the outer rail will rise by the amount of the gradient in relation to the inner rail by the time it has turned 90% double that by 180% and four times by 360% I have a spiral that radius which 0-6-0 Jinties and 4-6-2 Flying Scotsman have big problems with as the inside wheels come off the track leaving only 3 on the track, Flying Scotsman struggles with 3 coaches. As I said you may be able to build it as it is sort of symetrical but my feeling is there will be a 10mm gap somewhere as they haven't taken the gradient into consideration and I reckon the curves will be around 1% short in the vertical plane If you do build it it be a PITA to run with very limited train length and difficulty getting a controller setting to get trains up the hill without flying off the track on the downhill. OK for racing Hornby 0-4--0 Thomas and Percies. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Flying Pig Posted October 31, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 31, 2019 13 minutes ago, imt said: I'll get shouted at again - but go and buy a Peco layout plan book or something similar to look at. I'll shout - good idea. One point not mentioned so far is that abrupt changes of gradient combined with changes of curvature (which are inevitable with this plan) can cause derailments of longer vehicles due to wheels lifting off the rail. My childhood layout suffered from this and it took me ages to work out what was happening. We got away with all sorts of sins, though, like a 1st radius reverse curve on a (constant) 1 in 20ish that probably shouldn't have worked, largely because we knew no better. We had Magnadhesion in those days of course to get trains up silly slopes. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NittenDormer Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Scalextric for trains - great idea 'imt'! Be aware that the inner curve at each end is what is known as 'radius 1'. Many locos are sold as suitable for radius 2 minimum. Are you going for a level crossing or overbridge? A level crossing is fraught with collision danger, an overbridge will require pretty steep gradients, limiting your train length (plus gradients on a sharp bend add to the resistance). 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol'Bandit Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 It's an overbridge not a level crossing I guess...but I'm not really sure about that. Anyway I'm not a big fan of this kind of layout. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 7 hours ago, Drevant. said: . I found this double figure 8 track plan on another forum and I'm very tempted to build it. Simple solution - don't go back on that Forum!! Stick to a Forum where people know what they're talking about, like RMweb for example I doubt if whoever designed that layout has ever actually built it. If the lines cross on the flat it's a recipe for a lot of crashed trains. If the lines are meant to cross by bridge the gradients involved are very steep & probably impossible for most trains to negotiate. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roythebus Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 (edited) It looks fun and will work with small 0-6-0 engines and 2 short coaches, but you'll soon get bored with it just watching trains go round. If that's what you want, build it and have fun. we all had to make a start somewhere. Edited November 10, 2019 by roythebus 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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