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What features should a test track have?


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I’m going to be building a new test track as my daughter has forced me out of my current railway room and into her current bedroom. The space I have is 3m x 2.5m.  I want a single P4 circuit and 1 or 2 OO circuits.  I’m thinking of incorporating a pair of mock cross-overs on the P4 circuit to test buffer-locking.  Ideally I’d include all the features of the layouts that the stock will run on.  Penrhos has plenty of gradients and curves.  Origami is flat and the track is nothing special.

 

Are there any special features that I should have on my test track?  What’s your test track look like?

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Hi Penrhos 

You need to make sure that you have at least one section where the curves are the sharpest you are going to use. To make sure your stock and engines will go round it.

Several sets of points to make sure that your stock can manage going over multiple points and junctions.

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2 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Per the good answers already received, have all the features that represent the minimum standards you would employ building a layout, in the most challenging configuration you can devise.

 

Not yet mentioned, I like to have an accurate gradient for my minimum free rolling requirement of 1 in 100.

For my test track it was easy to adjust the gradient. I just lifted one end of the board up to get the line to rise..... :)

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Definitely an S curve at your minimum radius - but make sure you put a bit of straight track in the middle of it (I didn't and have regretted it ever since). My test track has at least 8 different gauges from 9mm up to 7mm scale 5'3' but the wider ones only go along the straight part. There are a lot of other "accidental' gauges in this but they can't easily be powered with rails at the same polarity. Don't bother with "deliberately rough" track, that won't tell you anything.

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3 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

I'd add a section of deliberately rough track to test trackholding - on the grounds, "If it will run on this, it will run on anything be fine on layout".

 

All my track is rough.  but not deliberately.  It just happens that way.  That’s the main reason that Penrhos has changed to OO; there’s no way I could build all that track in P4 and have anything do a whole circuit without falling off.

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21 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

... Don't bother with "deliberately rough" track, that won't tell you anything.

 

19 hours ago, Penrhos1920 said:

All my track is rough.  but not deliberately.  It just happens that way...

What is required of a test track is that it represents the standard of tracklaying the constructor can achieve, at whatever standards have been set for minimum radii and most severe gradient and transitions. That's how to find out if the items on test are going to be reliable on the builder's layouts, and if not what adjustments have to be made.

 

It's very specific to the builder. I fiddle with all the RTR OO I purchase and build any DIY for closer coupling between vehicles, as near scale as possible loco to tender spacing, bogie diesels at scale spacing between tops of bogie frames and body underside and the like, and the test track verifies that there will be no trouble on my layout.

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The test track should have a continuous run for running in.  It should replicate all the awkward bits of your layout.  Transitions from flat to max gradients both from bottom and over the top as per your layout.  (That caught Beyer Peacock and the LMS out when they sent Garretts over the Hump shunting Humps and is a big issue for 2000s Hornby)    Your Minimum radius curves and points, reverse curves if you have them. any awkward track work, crossings etc Crossovers if you have them with platforms beside them if you have them.  All the features you have on your layout or your mates have on theirs if you visit their layouts.  Make the layout adjustable so you can raise one end so the flat section becomes your ruing grade.

Conversely it shouldn't introduce useless new features. Classic is crossovers between platforms which locos only ever reverse over, the buffer beam swings a lot wider going forwards, but its irrelevant as long as it clears going backwards. You can waste a lot of time modifying locos to suit scenarios they never encounter.   A few switchable dead sections to check the pickups are working is a good ploy, most 4mm 6 coupled chassis should sail over a 50mm dead section dead slow and mos 4 coupled a 26mm if the pickups are working. I have a 28XX with Comet chassis with 8 pickups only three of which worked when I bought it... it would have failed the 25mm test.   My ideal test track would be banjo shaped, Circle with triangular junction to double track handle with crossover.  The non track bed cut away for lightness it would hang on a nail on the workshop/ bedroom/ kitchen/ shed wall ready for instant use propped on the floor/bed/table/ car/ lawn  delete as applicable.

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Thanks for your replies so far.  @DavidCBroad suggestion of switchable dead sections is something I'd not considered but it is easily added.  I've drawn up a first draft of the track plan.  The yellow rectangle is a bed that won't be used except when I'm on the naughty step!  In the opposite corner is a 4 drawer filing cabinet which sets the height of the layout and there is grey work table which looks out of the window.  The outer purple circuit is P4.  Minimum radius is 1100mm compared to 1200mm on the layout.  There are a pair of A7 crossovers as per the layout.  The rest of the track is OO with peco medium points.  Red is the lowest level, orange rises by 31mm on a gradient of 1 in 95 to the yellow level, green rises a futher 31mm to the blue level.  The inner yellow circuit has minimum radius sections and switchable dead sections.

 

sketchboard_2020_07_01_1403_56.jpg.5d2b4cbbb2474dd1bd9e64cb7e87e7af.jpg

 

Thoughts please.....

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On 27/06/2020 at 11:28, Michael Edge said:

Don't bother with "deliberately rough" track, that won't tell you anything.

Oh I dunno... rough track is great fun....

On 27/06/2020 at 13:09, Penrhos1920 said:

All my track is rough.  but not deliberately.

Some of mine is very deliberate....

 

....and it's prototypical...

000043766016.Jpeg.31785540ee33827f1ca553da9a292e77.Jpeg

:sungum: :locomotive: :blum:

Edited by F-UnitMad
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My test track is OO, and uses peco medium radius and large radius points back to back, with a double slip in the middle as that will be the tightest radius my stock will encounter. This is a anyrail plan of it, built on a pine shelf from B&Q

 

tt1a.jpg.f95f6a2ee01806fdfe01b25546c60b78.jpg

Edited by cheesysmith
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On 26/06/2020 at 22:16, Penrhos1920 said:

What’s your test track look like?

 

Mine is a simple oval on a board 1.1mx1.2m. It's all old Peco Code 100 track I had spare with one curved point put in there. If a vehicle can negotiate a manky Peco code 100 point, it should be good for anything.

Edited by 57xx
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On 01/07/2020 at 18:37, Kris said:

Do you really need that many lines for a test track?

 

Maybe not quite that much.  But if I remove the outer scissors:

 

1228851268_withoutscissors2.jpg.7cff4327a493e2f8f44b2ff7047eea2d.jpg

 

then I have just 3 circuits:

1.  outer P4

2.  inner OO flat with tightest radius and switched sections for testing pickups

3.  middle OO which actually goes around twice so that the long gradients can be tested.  need 3/4 turn to get the length of the longest trains on an up hill climb.

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