Sleeper spacing at cut ends of track

[ejstubbs]

First things first: this question isn't about the correct sleeper spacing or width for a given track scale.  There seems to be plenty of information on that topic already on this forum, and elsewhere.  (It is also not about building your own track.)

 

This question is about how best to deal with the situation where cutting a piece of track (flexi or otherwise) to the length required for a carefully designed track plan means that the cut will fall in the middle of, or right next to, a sleeper.  If you aim always to cut exactly halfway between sleepers then you could knock the layout geometry out by up ~5mm.  Maybe not an insurmountable issue in one location, especially if you're using flexi track, but in the worst case the errors could add up rather than cancelling out, and you could end up with a large discrepancy somewhere.

 

So is it just a question of cutting the web between a few sleepers adjacent to the cut and applying a bit of judicious "easing" to make things look right, or is there a more subtle trick to it?

[Campaman]

That's exactly what I do, just ease the sleepers out.

 

The prototype when using track panels actually close the sleeper spacing up at joins.

[28XX]

Yes definitely the way to go. Cut a few sleepers out completely and introduce some bigger gaps along the length. Peco spacing is too close anyway, and it breaks up the uniformity, especially on sidings.

[BlackRat]

Spot on.