Does anyone know the size requirements for building an HO guage WYE using 24 radius track? Is there a formula for figuring out the length of track required? Any help would be appreciated.
How about laying it out full size on some brown Kraft paper?
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
A lot of factors such as what type of switches you are using (standard vs equilateral/wye), what number switches (#4, #6, #8), the angle the tracks intersect, the brand of switch if you are using commercial switches.
I would do as others have suggested and mock it up and measure from there.
Nominally if the two tracks intersect at 90 degrees (both wye legs the same) each wye leg would be 1/4 a 24 in radius circle or about 38 inches less the portions of the arc in the switches, so probably less than a 36" piece of flex track.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
For my H0n3 wye I built the turnouts with curved diverging legs.
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
This might help with a "different' way to lay out a wye
http://maritime.dns.ca/mgerrits/trains/Wye,%20ME.html
ratled
Modeling the Klamath River area in HO on a proto-lanced sub of the SP “The State of Jefferson Line”
I used a basic CAD program to draw a wye with 22" radius diverging routes. I then used a full scale printout as a pattern. I used WS Accent Cement to temporarily glue printed circuit board ties to the pattern, then cut, filed and soldered the various rails in place. This wye sits at the top of a helix allowing trains to enter either the helix or a mid-layout staging yard. The biggest challenge was filing the rails to create the frog and that wasn't much of a challenge. I used a Fast Tracks frog and point filing jig to file the frog rails. I soldered the frog rails together using a #6 angle jig I made from a piece of plywood, then carefully curved the two frog rails to match the curves of the wye pattern. That was it! The rest of the wye was constructed with no more challenge than that of a standard turnout.
Hornblower