Login
or
Register
Subscriber & Member Login
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Login
Register
Home
»
Model Railroader
»
Forums
»
General Discussion (Model Railroader)
»
Track spacing in the yard?
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
<font size="3">WOW!!WHAT A THREAD!!!</font id="size3">Thank you, there, mikesmowers, for this topic. Brings back some real memories - although "horror stories' might be a more appropriate attribute. You, at least, have a means of getting some guidance. I made some very egregious mistakes in yard design when I was first starting out. <br /> <br />I was in the Air Force at Moses Lake, Washington when I first got interested in model railroading. The guy who ran the local hobby shop was primarily into model aviation; he did, however, try, as best he could, to give me some practical advice. I never did meet any other modelers in the area; presumably they were around but I remained a lone wolf modeler until the Air Force transfered me to Leftover Air Force Patch in Massachusetts in 1964. One thing I never thought about asking was about track separation in yards. My <i>Pracical Guide to Model Railroading</i> (which I still have, BTW, over forty years after I bought it - its well worn, I can tell you that) gave 2 1/4 inch track spacing for double track; a yard is, <i>in reality</i>, double track so that's where I went. <font size="3">WRONG!!!</font id="size3">. Two and a quarter inches in HO is 16'4" and when you subtract the ten foot width of a car - (this knowledge came later) - you come up with a spacing of 7/16ths of an inch. One day I put a string of cars onto the ties and discovered to my horror that trying to get a 1/2 inch thick finger into a 7/16 inch space is like trying to squeeze nineteen gallons into an eighteen gallon gas tank. <br /> <br />I got smarter on my next layout - my second - and laid my track centers on 2 3/8ths centers - 17'3" in HO. That gave me a half an inch finger space between cars. Things were still too tight and rerailing could still be a headach so on my next layout - my third, and last, in HO - I went to 20' centers (2 3/4 inch - 11/16 inch spacing between cars on adjacent track) and, for all practical purposes, I stopped having troubles. <br /> <br />When I shifted to N-Scale twenty-five plus years ago I was aware that that 20' (1 1/2 inch) spacing was not going to be enough so I settled on a 1 3/4 inch track separation; that works out to 23'4". I've always thought that that looked like h*ll but according to West Coast S, I don't appear to be too awfully far off current practice. <br /> <br />Jeffery-Wimberly had, as he usually does, some excellent advice on yard design and which, had I had someone to give me that kind of advice forty plus years ago, I could have avoided numerous Excedrin headaches. <br /> <br />Keep us posted!!!
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Subscriber & Member Login
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Login
Register
Users Online
There are no community member online
Search the Community
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter
See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter
and get model railroad news in your inbox!
Sign up