Aristo Remote Turnouts

[mtm1site]

I am about to begin laying track and have a question about 8 Ft. min.dia. track for my mainline and 5 ft. Dia. track for the sidings and yard. I plan to have a siding off the mainline for a passenger station. I already have aristro turnouts that are either 4 or 5 ft. dia. turnouts. I think aristro only makes 4ft. and #6 turnouts I don't know. Anyhow my question is this. Will the engines that require an 8 ft. dia. min. be able to go thru the smaller turnouts onto a siding for the station and then thru another smaller turnout back onto the mainline. Will there be a matching problem coming off these turnouts using 8 ft. dia.curve pieces to complete the siding. Is this a stupid question? Or should I spring for the #6 sidings. I ask this question because I have 4 smaller turnouts already and don,t want to use flex track. I have all the track already but no larger turnouts.

[Anonymous]

Aristo makes 3 radius turnouts, one is sharp, I don't know the effective radius, the next is the "wide radius" turnout, which almost perfectly matches a 5' radius, and the #6.

I would advise avoiding the tighest turnouts at all costs, even in a yard, unless all of your locos are relatively short. I am using the wide radius turnouts in my yard, and since yard speeds are slow, you should be able to sneak all locos through, even might get away with S curves. The #6 switches would be closer to prototype, but they will take a lot of space in the yard.

Since most locos will run through 8 foot diameter turnouts, the wide radius switches, 5' radius / 10' diameter will be very smooth.

Regards, Greg

[mtm1site]

Thanks for the advice. I maight as well try the turnouts to see if the engines will pass thru. I think the only problem will be with steam type engines as I plan to have both diesels and steam(1930 to 1970 in the railroad. I have not ordered any engines or rolling stock yet. I had planned a smaller railroad but my wife let me move a fence gate and open up an area that will let me have both a mainline and smaller dia track for the enterior portions of the town & yards. The problem was not using flex track and mixing the small with the large track dia. sectional track. I am thinking about ordering an NW-2 loco and calf unit, also a GP 30 that will solve the problem of min. dia .track. I don't know at this time what steam loco I'll order but it will probably have a min. dia. turning requirement of 8 ft. Thanks again for the advice.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Track & Turnouts, go as big a radius or diameter as you can get into the space available and save having to do it over sometime in the future!

[Capt Bob Johnson]

I guess I should really expand on that answer to be clear about things.

Go with too small a radius/diameter and you are not only limiting what locomothives you can run on the railroad, you also are limiting what rolling stock is available to you.

The overhang and off-tracking of a heavyweight or more modern passenger car would preclude using them in tighter radius situations. Likewise, the more modern freight cars.

I too, was thinking along the lines of my 040, an RS-3, a 44 tonner, and maybe an NW-2; however, I got bitten by the Pacific and SD -45! Since I started with my mainline being 10'radius and my minimum yard radius as 5', I can run just about anything on the market today.

The bigger the radius, the better your trains are going to look going around the layout!

I know several people who have pulled track to throw it out and get bigger radius!

[mtm1site]

If I read you right Bob & Greg, If I go with the wider 10 ft dia turnouts I will not have any problems coming off the mainline onto a siding for a passenger station and then back onto the mainline only, as opposed to using the turnouts I already have,and I think they are the smaller diameter and will not allow an engine that requires a 8 ft dia. thru. So having only limited space and having to run on a max. of 8 ft dia. mainline I,ll have to add storage space or a yard system for the larger steam locos on the mainline and only use yard engines or some of the diesel FA units to run on both the yards and mainline. Phew! I have already made my first mistake by buying 3 boxes of 5 ft dia. track when they were on sale. I also bought 3 boxes of 8 ft dia.track plus straight track and also the regular turnouts instead of the 10ft dia. turnouts. I am still waiting for the extra boxes of track that was approved by aristocraft. OH WELL! At least the wife doesn't know. TOM

[cacole]

An Aristo-Craft #6 turnout is 5 feet long. I have two of them on my layout and they are the most trouble-free of all my turnouts, but they do take up a lot of real estate.

[cutlass12001]

do the aristo remote turnouts hook up to the crest electronic accessory controls for the Walkaround engineer?

[Anonymous]

Aristo #6 turnouts are 90 cm long, about 35.5 inches long.

Much closer to 3 feet than 5 feet.

Regards, Greg

[Tom The Brat]

Yes. Aristo turnouts work with the accessory control. You likely want the #6 or wide radius turnout instead of the 4ft turnout. On these, the remote is an accessory.

I wired 4 of them to a pair of dpdt switches just cause they're hard to reach.