Any help would be great. I am trying to put together a small aprox 3 1/2 X 5 foot N scale layout.
My son has a loop of 315mm 12 3/8 inch curves with some straights to push the circle out to the edges of the board.
I have no idea about his Kato track, how to know how wide a full circle is! The 315mm curves appeared to measure 24 inches inside diameter. The available turnouts dont seem to be the same radius as the available curves? I am used to 027, 031, 048, 072 for O scale and cant figure out the N stuff.
We would like to put a figure 8 of a smaller diameter inside the loop and use a turnout or 2 between the 8 and circle. I guess that we will need R216 or R249 curves to make up the figure 8. Is R216 too small for many trains?
I’m going to post this anyway cause l’m confused. LOL
The outside diameter of a Kato Unitrack 315 mm loop is 644 mm or a little over 2´ 1 1/3" . The next smaller radius would be 282 mm, followed by 249 mm radius.
A radius of 216 mm is to small to run any regular loco or rolling stock, other than really short switchers and very short cars. It is intended for articulated trams or short commuter trains - Japanese style. Some of your locos may be able to negotiate curves that sharp, but it looks rather ridiculous and is prone to derailments.
I am impressed with Kato Unitrack; it’s reliable and easy to work with, but it does have some peculiarities, especially with setting the “power routing” and “non-power routing” screws on the underside, which work exactly opposite to the way my logic tells me they should.
My Cha-Cha Chesapeake Industrial RR is all Kato Unitrack and it measures 19" x 40". To get a semicircle in that width, I had to use the 216 mm curved track and it works beautifully with the 4-axle diesels, 0-8-0 switcher and 40’ cars that match my 1941 time period. I have all the frogs powered and use “non-power routing” on the mainline setting. The layout is DC.
My goal for this layout is switching, so whether the sharp turn looks realistic or not is secondary to smooth operation for me. The only short-radius curve is at one end of the point-to-point layout so it’s not too obvious. Everything works perfectly, much better than my larger layout with its Atlas components and soldered rail joints.
Rail Modeller software indicates that the #4 turnouts match a 481 mm curve.
The size quoted on Unitrack is for the radius circle they will form, measured from the center points between the rails. Remember, the radius is 1/2 of a circle…the diameter is the distance across a complete circle. The 315mm pieces will make a 315mm (12 3/8") radius circle…630mm (24 3/4")diameter across a whole circle. To get the absolute radius out to the edge of the roadbed, add approximatelly 1/2"…to get the absolute diameter, add approximately 1".
The curved leg of the #4 turnouts are the equivalent of 481mm (19") section of curved track…the #6 turnouts are the equivalent of a 718mm (28 1/4") curve section. I would suggest that if at all possible sticking with the #6 turnouts…the #4s are a bit quirky.
Thanks for the help. I put together a layout with 036 Lionel Fastrack. As long as I used all 036 tracks and switches it went together with little problem.
Suppose the issue I may have with the N track is when I use #4 or #6 turnouts to travel between the circle mainline and the inside figure 8… Is that things won’t match up cause the turnouts don’t match any of the size track I will be using.
Guess the best thing to do is look at the Kato layout plans and figure out how they do it .