Drawing/using plans to a scale of 3/4-inch to the foot and 1.5-inches to the foot is convenient because 1/16th of an inch equals one or one-half of an inch respectively.
Mark
Ron ...
Let's take first things first. The advice to go to Office Depot and get an architects scale is sound advice! Also, pick up a quadrille pad (1/4" grid pad) about 14" x 24" (if they have one.) These will both make developing your plan a little easier. (I spent 35 yrs as an Industrial Designer, but when sitting at my kitchen table instead of a big drawing board, the quad pad is a big help!)
Next, develop your plan using a larger scale. At 1" = 1' - 0" clearances are much to easy to miscalculate! I was using inch-to-the-foot and after spending several nights getting to what I reasoned was a pretty good engine servicing facility, I decided to draw up full-sized plans for my roundhouse. Much to my dismay, there was not enough room to get locomotives into the building - there was actually negative clearance. I switched to 3" = 1' - 0" and now I have a engine service plan with clearances that work ... the rest of the layout was developed at 1 1/2" scale. The architect's scale will become your planning friend!
... including side-to-side (parallel track) clearances, vertical clearances, track-to-structure clearances, etc.
In other words, use a development scale that allows you to actually SEE stuff like clearances! You'll have fewer problems down the line when you convert to one-to-one scale and start cutting wood and laying track!
BiL Marsland (P5se Camelback) Lehigh Susquehanna & Western Northeastern Pennsylvania Coal Hauler All Camelback Steam Roster!! "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others" -- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Chpt. 10
Thank you for the answers.
-Ron
Since an in on the drawing is a foot in real life, you just need to mulitply the measurements on the drawing by 12 to get the real measurements. So 1/8" is 12/8", or 1.5".
Jeff But it's a dry heat!
Hi Ron,
The simplest way to take measurements from a track plan drawing of a known scale is to use a scale rule in that scale. The rule you want is called an architect's scale; it's triangular and includes several fractional inch scales as well as 1 in. equals 12 in. These scales are available at Office Depot and other office supply stores and only cost a few bucks.
So long,
Andy
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
Hello.
I am looking a track plan on paper. It measures 1 inch by 6 inches (HO scale). 12' grid (scale 1" = 1' 0").
Actual size is 1 foot by 6 feet.
If i measure something on the drawing at 1/8", how does that convert to actual size so i can transfer it to the layout? On the plan i have a measurement of 1/8" from the edge to the center of the track. What would this be on the actual layout?
_ron