yard turnout frog angle

[cmitcham]

i love yards and bought "north american railyards" for the great pictures. is it just illusion, or are the turnouts in yards very low frog numbers? i know we like big gentle, smooth ones, but that's not what i see in the pictures.

have a look at the pic in tree68's signature. he has posts under model railroad painting (or others) looking at that ladder, i'd guess those diverge at 1 to 1, or at most 1:2.

what's the real story?

calvin.

[nfmisso]

Calvin;

Real yard use #8, #10 frogs. The picture is an illusion.

[DSchmitt]

#8 and #10 look sharp because they are are sharp. Out on the road #20 or larger are used.

[cmitcham]

ok, thanks guys, i'll have to believe you. but don't you agree that in the pics the divergences look to be around 45 degrees?

divergences - (n) things that diverge

calvin.

[Anonymous]

The low angle of a photo taken by someone standing on or near the tracks will make the angle appear sharper, especailly if taken with a telephoto lens which compresses distances...

Andrew

[johncolley]

I am using 10's on main X'overs and 8's in the yards except for service tracks I use 6's with an occasional 4 such as the oil sevice track to the diesel shop. I have seen some layouts for Great Northern such as Skykomish and Index that used 11's. I believe the house track and leads at Keddie, CA used 16"s. Answer, go as big as you have room for.