Hi, hope someone can help, I am currnetly building the scenic ridge layout using kato unitack, in order for it to fit right I have to mark the positions of the kato track on the foam, as I was doing this i noticed that it calls for a 28 1/4" 15 degree radius cure in three different places, but when I look as to where it goes it doesn't seem to fit right. is there another piece of unitrak I can use in its plac?
Three 15 degree curves equals 45 degrees of turn from a straight. Another three 15 degree turns added to that makes it a 90 degree 1/4 circle.
It takes me FOUR 28 and 1/4 inch radius SECTIONS to make a 90- degree turn.
I dont know your plan. But two of your 28 1/4 inch radius track curves should make a 45 degree turn.
Each 28 and 1/4 radius track section represents a 22.5 degree turn. Two of these is 45 degrees.
You can always lay down a protractor and make a 15 degree angle on a large peice of paper. Then lay the Kato track curve peice on THAT with one end at your zero degree line and cut the plastic ballast and rails right at the 15 degree angle. Be sure to use a mitre box and a saw to cut straight down to the rail from the bottom up.
If you make a mistake, grab another 28 inch track curve section and try again. There is always a certain amount of loss or waste when laying Kato layouts. I had quite a few of little track left over.
Ive said all I can say here without confusing the issue any further. It takes alot of real estate and several different track sections to complete a curve.
If you absolutely MUST rail a problem area, grab some cork, a small amount of plastic just thick enough to raise your flex track on the cork roadbed even with your kato track and cut to fit. Then use a bit of Kato ballast or woodland scenics ballast to blend everything in. It's sort of cheating but allows use of other trackwork.
The problem with large radius track is that Kato curves are designed to be about 60mm apart on straightaways.
Are we having fun yet? Not only we need to count degrees of curvature, we need to think section count and then millimeters as well.
There will always be a certain amount of space taken by the kato track no matter what you do. The real question becomes, do you have the layout big enough to make it all fit?
If you are trying to use number 6 Kato switches, 34 inch track radius curve sections fit perfectly no matter where you put em. If you are working a number 4 switch I think it's the 21.5 inch radius curves off those switches. Again Radius and Degrees all need to be considered.
On my layout the mains are 31 and 28 and the industry trackwork is anywhere from 21 inches on up to a few fat 34 inch sections snuck into the spurs. If there is nothing connecting to these spurs, I only care about making sure the building fits the real estate and that the dock is raised about 1/4 inches on foam to make the Walthers modular dock fit reasobably good enough to a boxcar floor.
Good luck!