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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by HAZMAT9 ...If someone was to use sectional, and let's say you have either a width of 5 or 7 feet, what track would be used to figure out let's say a 30" curve?..[/quote] In the Atlas track plan books, they show how to add easments to an 18" radius curve. A 1/2-18"r section is placed in the middle of the reverse curve. At the ends of the curve, a 22"r section is placed at each end instead of a 18"r section. It adds 1/4" to the radius (1/2" to diameter) center line. I don't know of any sectional tracks larger than 22"r. [quote]QUOTE: The only thing that confuses me is actually measuring the curve. .....is there a calculation or something....Steve[/quote] Welcome to the "I'm not a rocket scientist" club, which I'm a member of. You can print out [url="http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/001/647dsuww.asp"]easment templates[/url] or use the stick method (read further down). You can buy a [url="http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=14302"]Yardstick Compass[/url] to draw curve center lines. I made my own out of 3/4" X 3/4" stick with a hole on one end, tight enough to hold a nail and more holes, to hold pencils, for the track center line and the road bed edges. You can draw directly onto a sheet of plywood if you are using the cookie cutter method. But that won't work for spline roadbed or if you use Rick Rideouts method of sub-road bed (I can explaine that later if you like). I made templates out of 24" X 28" poster boards. I taped the poster board a work table and drew out the center line and the road bed edges. For marling track centers, I cut out along the center line and inner road bed line. For templates that are as wide the road bed, I cut at the road bed lines. I used the first template to draw out the others. As Adelie said, the offset is 3/4" for an easment on a 40"r curve. Draw the full curve center line with the compuss or templates and continue drawing a straight line for a few inches at the ends of the 180 degree turn. Mark 3/4" from the the straight center line (the line comming off the curve) and that is the center line for the tangent (straight) track. Use the easment templates to connect the tangent line with the curve. Or cut a piece of wood 1/8" thick X 3/4" wide X whatever length needed to round more than half the curve. Have someone hold one end of the stick on it's narrow edge down at the middle of the curve along the center line. Bend the stick to the tangent track and draw the center line. That will give you an easment. Any questions? As for myself, I use spline sub-road bed for my curves and the easment comes naturally as I build the sub-roadbed. It's like the drawing with the stick method.
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