I want to add a curved turnout to expand my HO layout. The existing track is curving to the left with a 24" radius. I would like to insert a stock curved turnout-right that will parallel the existing 24" radius with a 26-1/2" radius. Can anyone tell me which stock turnouts I can use? Preferable Peco as that is what the existing track is.
Thanks
Have you checked the Peco or Walthers sites. They may list the radii of the turnouts? It's taken me many years playing on computers to finally remember that I can do such things. Still use Google as a last resort.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
Good luck,
Richard
The closest Walthers/Shinohara has is their #7 curved turnouts. It's list as a 24"/28", but like many curved turnouts, it's not quite what it seems. The 24" inner side is pretty accurate. The 28" outside side is actually a little sharper than 28" so it mmay work for what you have planned.
Keep in mind, as with standard turnouts, you can clip the small plastic runners that hold the ties in place and recurve the turnout some to get a better fit. Nothing drastic, but this should help make it work.
Never used Peco, so I'll let someone with experience answer that.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Here's Peco Turnout Plans (their templates) for download to see what fits and/or does not fit. You may still need to make adjustments to the curved track on either side of the new turnout.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
mlehman The closest Walthers/Shinohara has is their #7 curved turnouts. It's list as a 24"/28", but like many curved turnouts, it's not quite what it seems. The 24" inner side is pretty accurate. The 28" outside side is actually a little sharper than 28" so it mmay work for what you have planned.
I have many of the Walthers/Shinohara curved turnouts. Unless they have changed in the last couple of years, it is the larger radii that are typically correct and the diverting or inner radii that are overstated by 2" (therefore, a 28/24 is really 28/22). Trust me: I have checked this condition by both graphic methods and using Ribbonrail guides.
Dante
Dante,
I checked what I have on the layout against my old set of Arbour Models track templates. They're cardboard, so more prone to differing than metal, I suppose, but doubt that's of much significance.
The 24" laid nicely and matched at both ends. The 28" was close, but wouldn't match as well at the ends. Since they're opaque and I wasn't going to pull the turnout to overlay it onto the template to see what was going on in between, yeah, that could differ from what you saw by sliding the Ribbonrail as far in as you could before and after the frog.
So you may be right about what the indicated radius is from that. Splicing things into a curve was what the OP was concerned about and will have to fudge in some manner anyway. To me it looked like the 24" side would require no adjustment to fit. The 28" side is not going to lay as neatly into a 28" curve for whatever reason. Of course, if the effect through the entire turnout is that it looks to fit a somewhat sharper curve, say 27" (that's what I'd guess from the offset I saw at both ends), then that's a net positive for fitting where he needs it to go.
I suspect we're measuring slightly different aspects of the turnout curvature, but curved turnouts are like that in my experience. Most of what's on the layout is from before they made them DCC friendly , so are roughly 10+ years old. Got no idea, though, if they did make changes in production, just calling 'em as I see 'em.
Installing them is also subject to some adjustments I mentioned earlier with the ties, so suspect that offers enough flexibility to adjust a little, it'll serve its purpose well enough.
Curved turnouts come in a few sizes, but in opinion of LION it is better to adjust your curves to fit the switches rather than the other way around. Put the switches down first then then build the rest of the layout around them. You will have a much smoother operation this way. LION failed to do this, that is how he knows this.
Him wanted to retrofit them into an existing curve, and eventually pulled up the whole curve and re set it to fit the switches.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Lion,
Gotta agree that makes things easier. Retrofits sometimes just happen, though.
At least curved turnouts give you a bit more to help things merge well on curves. I've found that even ordinary turnouts can be made to work on curves if you play your cards right, don't force things too much, and have a relatively broad curve to start with.
When I added a turntable at Tefft, I needed to work a turnout for its lead into a 24" R curve. Might have been better with a #6, but what I had was a #4. And except for custom builders, no one makes curved turnouts in HOn3. I used my trick of slicing the ties free to help smooth things out here and it doesn't look too bad (it's behind a small hill to further disguise it) and operates just fine, even with my K-28 and K-36.