General Discussion (Garden Railways)

Its time for me to build my first turnouts and I am using the recent 2 part article by Steve Monson as my starting point. It looks pretty straight forward but I have a question about changing from code 332 to code 250. The scale on my logging railroad is 1:20.3 and the track is AMS code 250 flextrack.

Is there more to this change than just using larger ties and code 250 rails? Do I use all the rail measurements noted in the plans as is or does the change effect them? Do I need a different set of plans specifically for 1:20.3 or code 250?

Any guidance is much appreciated.

The only thing you will need to change in the plans would possibley be tie spacing and size.  Cut your ties to match the width and height of the ties throughout your empire.  Cut the lengths the same as in the article.  If you need a tighter turnout, you could change the radius of the curve, but would need to make those ties longer to accomidate the change.  The one good part of hving so many scales in the garden, is that they all opperate on the same track and turnouts.

 As pointed out in the article, the flange width spacing in the frog and guard rails is self spaced by the foot width of code 332 rail. The foot of the code 250 rail is smaller so you will have to set the proper spacing yourself.

Walt

The sly, cunning trick is to take a machinist's ruler to a commercial turnout, to get the dimensions of the flangeways.  You also need to take the back-to-back dimension of your wheelsets, to assure an adequately wide check gauge.

There really is very little difference in the process of building large scale/large rail turnouts and the same thing in Z scale.  The biggest difference is that in 1:80 (code 83 or 100 rail) I can accomplish with a few file strokes what you will probably want to do with a belt sander or abrasive wheel.

Good luck - found at the intersection of preparation and opportunity.

Chuck