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Need help with train layout.....

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  • Member since
    April 2003
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Need help with train layout.....
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 7, 2006 3:46 PM
I'm going to be putting a train layout in my basement. I'll be using a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood and am looking for some help designing an O gauge layout for it. I've seen some but none loked good to me. I want it to be realtively simple but also appealing to the eye. I need to buy track so any ideas would be great! Thanks for the help!!
Eddie
  • Member since
    December 2004
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Posted by csxt30 on Saturday, January 7, 2006 3:58 PM
http://www.thortrains.net/
This site will give you a lot of info on small layouts & probably some on track also. Hope this helps !
  • Member since
    April 2003
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 7, 2006 11:26 PM
Heres another link for you with around 100 webpages of layouts if you want
http://hometown.aol.com/corelane/links.html
but Johns link is the most direct , check them out
lots of luck and good hunting[tup]
  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: Kansas City
  • 413 posts
Posted by mickey4479 on Sunday, January 8, 2006 8:58 PM
I have found graph paper to be a great tool. It forces me to take inventory of the space I have and think about the layout I am planning. The radius of the track is probably the most significant issue I have found. There a many preplanned layouts out there and Atlas, MTH and Lionel have some neat ideas. Good luck.
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Austin, TX
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Posted by lionelsoni on Monday, January 9, 2006 9:13 AM
Here is an approximate way of laying out standard tubular track pieces using only graph paper--no template. There are two versions, one for O27 and one for O31.

For O27, each square of the graph paper represents 1 1/4 inch. You sketch the center-line of the track for each straight track section 7 squares long if the track is parallel to the graph-paper lines, or across the diagonal of a 5x5 square box otherwise. You sketch each curved section inside a 3x7 rectangular box, with the curve tangent to the long side of the box at one corner and at a 45-degree angle at the opposite corner. A switch is just a curved piece touching a straight piece, of course.

For O31, each square represents 1 inch. The straight sections are 10 squares (inches) long or across the diagonal of a 7x7 square box. A curve is in a 4x10 box.

This method is not exact; but it is very close. The worst error is about 1 percent. For example, it makes some O27 straight pieces 8 3/4 inches long, whereas they are actually 8.839.

Bob Nelson

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