Help Please! 9ftx5ft Trainset

[bigdaveadams1]

Hello all,

 

I’ve got no PC/Laptop so can’t access Anyrail. My son is after a double track OO gauge roundly roundly with a small station and a goods siding. Just wondering if somebody would be kind enough to knock something up in Anyrail please? We’ve just moved house and SWMBO doesn’t want me to get sidetracked planning a layout! But my autistic son does. I just need to know if it’ll fit in 9ftx5ft please?!

 

Any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

BDA

[ITG]

In terms of minimum radii, 00 will fit that space. It is recommended to use 2nd radius set track equivalent as the minimum, as some locos won’t negotiate 1st radius. Prospective planners will need to know if you are planning on using set track or flexi track, particularly so if you are wanting to use their plan to order quantities of track. Turnouts are in different radii.
is the room 9x5, or the board that size?

If a room, where’s the door? Does that impact on the layout?

If a board, a greater consideration is how this 9’x5’ board will be accessed. Even if access is from all 4 sides, reaching across to the centre (ie 2.5’) is not at all easy, either for building the layout, or for maintenance or derailed stock recovery. Especially so for a child. Will the board be on legs? Is it permanently in situ, because if not, moving a single board layout of this size is near impossible.

 

I’m by no means an expert on planning layouts for children, but I suspect what suits a 5 year old is significantly different to a 12 year old, so some info about your son’s age etc may also help.

I think you’d get more responses if you are able to describe more fully the answers to the above.

 

Good luck.

[john new]

If you can get a set of the mini-Hornby track planning parts the child can have fun planning before you buy anything. 1/4 scale so easy to draw out a board size and then plan the track. The bonus, when you get a set up you like you can use the templates to find which parts you have used so you can then list what you need to buy.

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by john new
Typos corrected

[bigdaveadams1]

2 hours ago, john new said:

If you can get a set of the mini-Hornby track planning parts the child can have fun planning before you buy anything. 1/4 scale so easy to draw out a board size and then plan the track. The bonus, when you get a set up you like you can use the templates to find which parts you have used so you can then list what you need to buy.

 

I think that’s the way forward John! I was hoping on using Peco products but I can just get an idea from the Hornby stuff. Thank you.

[bigdaveadams1]

3 hours ago, ITG said:

In terms of minimum radii, 00 will fit that space. It is recommended to use 2nd radius set track equivalent as the minimum, as some locos won’t negotiate 1st radius. Prospective planners will need to know if you are planning on using set track or flexi track, particularly so if you are wanting to use their plan to order quantities of track. Turnouts are in different radii.
is the room 9x5, or the board that size?

If a room, where’s the door? Does that impact on the layout?

If a board, a greater consideration is how this 9’x5’ board will be accessed. Even if access is from all 4 sides, reaching across to the centre (ie 2.5’) is not at all easy, either for building the layout, or for maintenance or derailed stock recovery. Especially so for a child. Will the board be on legs? Is it permanently in situ, because if not, moving a single board layout of this size is near impossible.

 

I’m by no means an expert on planning layouts for children, but I suspect what suits a 5 year old is significantly different to a 12 year old, so some info about your son’s age etc may also help.

I think you’d get more responses if you are able to describe more fully the answers to the above.

 

Good luck.

Hi, what I would like is for a 9ft x 5ft rectangle in Anyrail with two loops of track. I was hoping they’d be 3rd radius on the inside and 4th radius on the outside. Don’t need any points on the plan. It’ll just let me visualise the viability of twin tracks. My preferred option would be single loop with a passing loop. However I need to visually be able to show my son that twin tracks are too much for the space.

 

So if possible, inner loop with 3rd radius, outer loop 4th radius and then lengths of flexi to join them up. No need to worry about access or doors etc.

 

Thanks for your reply, it’s allowed me to clarify my request. I know I’m being a bit cheeky asking, but he’s driving me to distraction!

[john new]

Third radius plus a half straight to make it oval can just fit 4ft square so the extra for 4th radius I guess should fit 5ft.  This was a trial last summer to see what would fit an old notice board I had. 2nd rad inner - 3rd radius outer.

My old Hornby-Dublo demo layout was 6ft 6 by 5ft (2 doors split down the middle), again the brief notes here might give you a guide.  It was access all round - 5ft solid is definitely too long a stretch for one sided operations.

 

[ITG]

Here's a pdf of the Anyrail file, on a (metric equivalent to) 9' x5'board. It uses 3rd and 4th radius set track, with no straights on the ends simply to show scaling. I used small radius Streamline turnouts simply to get the track spacing, which of course gives a narrower spacing than if set track points had been used. What that does expose is that then using 3rd/4th radius curves leads to the track spacing not being consistent in Anyrail, although of course, in reality, one could use tweaks in adjacent flexi to adjust.

Much depends on whether sidings/stations are required outside the circuit or inside, the latter being tricky to reach.

 

Unless the idea was to have a central operating well, as then you’d need to push the circuits to the outer edges. You would probably want 2’ space in the centre, leaving 1.5’ either side.

 

4th radius is 572mm to track centre, so let’s say 600mm, or 2’. That means a180 degree U needs 4’, leaving 6” either side.

Hope that helps.

9x5.pdf

Edited October 2, 2022 by ITG
Added info

[Kris]

Basic oval using Peco 3rd and 4th radius track on set track spacings. 

 

[bigdaveadams1]

10 minutes ago, ITG said:

Here's a pdf of the Anyrail file, on a (metric equivalent to) 9' x5'board. It uses 3rd and 4th radius set track, with no straights on the ends simply to show scaling. I used small radius Streamline turnouts simply to get the track spacing, which of course gives a narrower spacing than if set track points had been used. What that does expose is that then using 3rd/4th radius curves leads to the track spacing not being consistent in Anyrail, although of course, in reality, one could use tweaks in adjacent flexi to adjust.

Much depends on whether sidings/stations are required outside the circuit or inside, the latter being tricky to reach.

 

Unless the idea was to have a central operating well, as then you’d need to push the circuits to the outer edges. You would probably want 2’ space in the centre, leaving 1.5’ either side.

Hope that helps.

9x5.pdf 203.76 kB · 1 download

That’s absolutely fantastic, thank you so very much.

 

I’m thinking central well for access, but it’ll be DCC with wireless controllers and decoders for point motors. So it can be operated from the front and sides. 
 

Having seen your plan. I’m wondering if I can have the station on a continuous curve. 
 

Much appreciated!

[ITG]

3 hours ago, bigdaveadams1 said:

That’s absolutely fantastic, thank you so very much.

 

I’m thinking central well for access, but it’ll be DCC with wireless controllers and decoders for point motors. So it can be operated from the front and sides. 
 

Having seen your plan. I’m wondering if I can have the station on a continuous curve. 
 

Much appreciated!

Maybe by tightening one corner’s curves (and disguising them), you could then relax the adjacent corner’s radii, in order to make the station area less acute?

[bigdaveadams1]

8 hours ago, Kris said:

Basic oval using Peco 3rd and 4th radius track on set track spacings. 

 

That's perfect, exactly what I needed. Thank you.

[DCB]

The bigger the curve radius the shorter the straights, Minimum usable radius in Modern 00 is 2nd radius which needs just over 3 feet to get a circle. every extra curve radius adds over 2" radius or 4" Diameter.

Kris gave you a good diagram, I would use 2md and 3rd radius not 4th.

If you have built the baseboard, why not get the lad a load of Set track and let him have fun arranging and re arranging the track like my Dad did for me almost 60 years ago.  I built my son a layout and later wished I had just done a baseboard and let him assemble it how he wanted.  Later we took a lot of old super 4 set track on Holiday, a dozen points, three or four circuits of curves, a load of straights. a few locos and coaches/ wagons, three DC controllers stufffed in an old drill box and 20 or so 26" straights and laid them on the floor of the house we rented for our annual holiday. Great Fun   He's 26 now, has a degree in Applied Computing  and we did it again this year. 

Half the fun is working out the track layout.    Just avoid 1st Radius.

Edited October 3, 2022 by DCB

[bigdaveadams1]

We only moved in on Friday, so it’s very much a discussion about what would work before building any baseboards. He’s got a 9ft x 1ft6 end to end BLT to keep him entertained until we are at baseboard construction stage.

 

I was thinking about having a continuous shallower curve from scenic break to scenic break. Then using 2nd and 3rd radius off scene and that way we could maybe use setrack curved points to create a fiddle yard.

 

All he’s really interested in is watching trains whizzing round. I’m definitely thinking setrack and some old wallpaper will be perfect for him to plan something.

[Chimer]

Here's an outline with R3 and R4 curves at the top joined by variable radius (all larger than R4) curves across the bottom .....

 

[RobinofLoxley]

14 hours ago, bigdaveadams1 said:

We only moved in on Friday, so it’s very much a discussion about what would work before building any baseboards. He’s got a 9ft x 1ft6 end to end BLT to keep him entertained until we are at baseboard construction stage.

 

I was thinking about having a continuous shallower curve from scenic break to scenic break. Then using 2nd and 3rd radius off scene and that way we could maybe use setrack curved points to create a fiddle yard.

 

All he’s really interested in is watching trains whizzing round. I’m definitely thinking setrack and some old wallpaper will be perfect for him to plan something.

Setrack curved points arent that great, depending on stock, derailments are common.

 

Im sure you know your kid better than we do, but as they grow up tastes change so a bit of future developement even on the basic plan wouldnt be a bad thing. That can happen even while youre planning

[bigdaveadams1]

Thanks for the input. I’ll be putting a couple of sidings in for a bit of shunting. I just wish he’d get to grips with N gauge. But we’ve tried that and he keeps breaking things, so OO is much more robust. 

[bigdaveadams1]

Was thinking something a bit like this but with much tighter curves and a very skinny bottom platform. But we can sort all that out once we've got an hour! 

Edited October 5, 2022 by bigdaveadams1
Missing word

[DCB]

That's an interesting station. The bottom line is a goods line into which trains in either direction have to reverse, and the level crossing is just plain strange.

[bigdaveadams1]

I live opposite to Sleights Station. The level crossing gave access to the Goods Yard. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by bigdaveadams1

[Titanius Anglesmith]

3 hours ago, bigdaveadams1 said:

I live opposite to Sleights Station. The level crossing gave access to the Goods Yard. 

Just the goods yard, or was it a public road?

 

The layout is very similar to a station local to me, except that the level crossing was at the other end (where the bridge is here. And it was a public road)

[Flying Pig]

A photo of that end of Sleights station here - there does appear to be a public route over the crossing to the bridge just visible on the left.  Note the loop is not a passenger line, as @DCB pointed out above.

 

Wouldn't sidings on the inside of the loop be easier to work from a central well?  You probably have enough room to arrange them in series with tbe station (which was more common) rather than in parallel as at Sleights, which would also be more convenient.  

[bigdaveadams1]

On 07/10/2022 at 13:34, Titanius Anglesmith said:

Just the goods yard, or was it a public road?

 

The layout is very similar to a station local to me, except that the level crossing was at the other end (where the bridge is here. And it was a public road)

Originally it was the main road until the big flood washed the bridge away. Then a new bridge was built diverting the road over the railway. 

[bigdaveadams1]

7 hours ago, Flying Pig said:

A photo of that end of Sleights station here - there does appear to be a public route over the crossing to the bridge just visible on the left.  Note the loop is not a passenger line, as @DCB pointed out above.

 

Wouldn't sidings on the inside of the loop be easier to work from a central well?  You probably have enough room to arrange them in series with tbe station (which was more common) rather than in parallel as at Sleights, which would also be more convenient.  

It'll be DCC wireless control, so doesn't really matter. Full access is available from the well or the outside. 

[bigdaveadams1]

Here’s a link to a site selling a photo taken in 1955. It shows the level crossing very nicely! https://www.francisfrith.com/sleights/sleights-railway-crossing-and-footbridge-c1955_s809007#photo