Do you have Peco medium turnouts in your yard?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

If so, how do you calculate the length of the piece of track that joins two turnouts… (the ‘length of straight track’ in the diagram below)

so that you maintain 2 inches between your yard tracks measured center to center?
I’m new at this but quickly found that joining one turnout directly to another turnout places the tracks right next to each other. Not a good thing.
JaRRell

2

easiest way i’ve seen to do this (as detailed by other members):

starting at the yard throat (or whatever the initial turnout is…), lay all of your turnouts so that their diverging routes make the actual yard(connect them all by their ‘through’ routes). Depending on the scale and turnout #, you should get about 2" (+/- about 1/8" or so) easy between the tracks.

3

I did not calculate it per se. I used Peco mediums all over my layout. I drew the center lines of the ladder tracks, in my case they are 2 1/2" centers and then placed the turnouts and cut the small bits according to actual measurements. In my case they are about 1 3/4" long.

4

I am using them also, are you finding that the throwbars interfere with the adjacent track?

5

Yes, that is my problem plus the fact that if you don’t make that straight section of track around 1 1/2 to two inches, then you won’t get enough space between your yard tracks.
Having all those little short sections is going to mean a lot of soldering, unless you don’t solder them at all. This could be done on the work bench to make it go easier and faster. I think Atlas makes very short sections… like 1 inch… 2 inch etc. and that maybe what I use.
Thanks for the answers so far! :slight_smile:
JaRRell

6

For what it is worth here is a quick snap of the yard.

7

Simon, I appreciate yours and NeO6874 answers and that is probably the way I’ll do it. Just lay the ladder tracks down at the desired spacing and figure out the connections.
JaRRell

8

I came across a 1 1/2 inch piece of sectional track and tried it. That length looks like it will work perfectly.
Simon, that’s a heck of a yard you have there!
JaRRell

9

For the Pecos, you would need to trim the ties surrounding the throw in order to fit them in. Did you do a little tie trimming to build that nice looking yard?

10

No I did not have to trim the ties. The 1 3/4" pieces between the turnouts allow enough clearance for the throw. I spaced my yard tracks at 2 1/2" as I have 2 boys and I want them to be able to pick things up without having a problem so plenty of clearance is in order. As you can see in the pic they have been playing. Spot the GP9 off the tracks at the back of the yard. The coal load on the flat car and a pair of heavy weight passenger cars going thru the coal tipple! The track to the right of the tipple at the front is also my programming track switched to either the DCC program output or the booster. I can run into it, stop next to my sanding station, switch the switch and program away. Then switch back and drive out the other end of the siding.

11

Simon, Val’s Hamburger joint looks like my kinda eatery. :slight_smile:
How are you coming with the mural project?
JaRRell

12

Thanks Jarrell, I have been quite happy with the mural program. The photos on the back drop of the scene on another thread are all from it.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56656

There are several examples towards the end of the pictures on the picturetrail site also. You have to be a bit careful with perspective, but I am no artist and the idea of painting a back drop was very daunting for me.

13

Ha! That’s pretty good, so good in fact I overlooked the backdrop in the picture thinking it was part of the scene back there. :slight_smile:
Jarrell