O gauge crossover arrangements

[stuartmit]

I have seen an article which showed how to avoid an S-curve on a crossover between parallel lines of Lionel track And switches.  It involved placing 4 switches and a crossing in the vicinity of a location where both parallel lines turned a 90° corner on your layout.

 

I thought the article was in toy trains magazine, but I have a complete set, and cannot find it there.

there were a few different approaches one mIght take and I would welcome anyone who can point me to the magazine article or can just outline them here in some Way 

 

thanks v much 

[ADCX Rob]

Here is one way to do it with Lionel O track sections.

[stuartmit]

Ok.  That's one.  Thanks.  I am pretty sure there was at least one more, maybe using a 45 crossing and perhaps yet another; i am picturing a page with several diagrams. 

I think the article was by Warren F Morgan who wrote the Model Railroad Book (Fawcett Books) in the early 1950's. It concerned building a layout around some cellar cabinets and other obstacles, as I recall.

[lionelsoni]

Connect 4 turnouts in a row, as follows:  Connect the facing-point ends of the middle 2 turnouts back-to-back, so that their non-diverging paths make a 2-section tangent and their diverging paths make the 90-degree inside curve.  The tangent's midpoint will be halfway through the inside curve.  Connect the 2 remaining turnouts' diverging paths to the ends of the tangent, and connect those turnout's non-diverging paths together by the 90-degree outside curve.

My layout is generally O-27, but I use 2 O-34 sections for a gentle outside curve with a tiny (9/16) plug in the middle of the curve.  There is plenty of room to make this curve in several other different ways.

Both the across-track and along-track separation of the main lines into and out of the crossover will be half the track curve radius--6.25 inches for O-27.

[ADCX Rob]

lionelsoni

Connect 4 turnouts in a row, as follows

[lionelsoni]

I was hoping someone would draw it.  Thanks, Rob!

[stuartmit]

i think you can also do it by using 45 crossing cpnnected next to a turnout from outer track as well as inner track, possibly with a cut piece of straight on inner,  with a curve in each outlet of the 45 crossing, leading to a turnout in outer as well as inner track, perhaps with cut pieces of straight to fit.

[lionelsoni]

Note that the double crossover I suggested can get by with two controllers, one for each individual crossover, while Stuart's, which is equivalent to a diamond crossover, needs only a single controller for the entire thing.

[ADCX Rob]

lionelsoni

...Stuart's, which is equivalent to a diamond crossover, needs only a single controller for the entire thing...

My first diagram, too.

[ADCX Rob]

stuartmit

...you can also do it by using 45 crossing cpnnected next to a turnout from outer track as well as inner track

Here's another one:

[lionelsoni]

Sorry, Rob.  I wasn't clear that I was taking your first diagram as a realization of Stuart's more general description.  I shouldn't have conflated the two.

I think I can say that your (Rob's) diagrams are examples of diamond crossovers and both can be implemented with a single controller, while mine is a double crossover and needs two controllers.  It has an additional path, outside track to inside to outside again, which has no practical purpose but which I do occasionally accidentally travel!

[stuartmit]

I think the article that I recall may have been in model builder magazine, although I thought it was in toy trains.

there is a layout diagram in the model railroad book by Commander Warren Morgan printed in the early 1950s. It is on page 141, and I recognize that diagram from somewhere else. Seeing that I began to read through the book, and in an early chapter, he describes conferring with his sons about a layout they wanted to build in the late 30s. He comments that they sought some answers from Lionel on a few questions, And that those questions led to an article in model builder magazine. I started with the January 1940 issue and found the article to which he referred in the April 1940 issue. But there was no discussion of crossover arrangements as I recalled. But I suspect in view of his comments about contact with Lionel that the article I am looking for is in a model builder magazine. Anybody have a clue as to what issue? Perhaps you recall seeing it? 

The diagram which I suddenly recognized had a track plan which included a pair of switches directly connected on the curved legs, with straight legs intersecting in a 90° Crossing. Although not a crossover, I believe that the establishment of that in the track plan was discussed in the article about various crossover arrangements. 

it also occurred to me, in perhaps a sad way, that Commander Morgan is no doubt long since gone since he refers to his service in World War I, and his sons who were definitely in their early teens based on the pictures in the model builder magazine article, may well be gone by now also. But all of us come and then go.

 

apologies for capitalization.