I was wondering what is your longest straight run, do you have a cross-country train? would ypu have one if you had enough room? I think that a 30’ or 40’ straight run would be cool. What do you think? Mike
The longest straight run on my HO layout is a 9 foot stretch. Not sure what it is in scale distance.
Mike,
At first I thought you were going to ask what is the longest “prototypical” straight run - which is actually in the western portion of Australia: 750 miles of straight track without a curve, if my mind serves me correctly. (That would be 8.6 miles of HO scale track. [:0])
On a 4 x 8’ layout, it’s sorta difficult to have a very long section of straight track. (Mine is only 3’ at best.) Actually, I think a long, very gentle curving section of track - that’s “almost” straight but isn’t - is more interesting aesthetically.
Tom
I have one stretch that is about five feet. Hopefully when we move this fall and buy our new home I can figure out a nice BIG area for my layout. A nice long run would be nice.
Terry[8D]
I have two sections about 20 feet, but they are not dead straight. I think a train that weaves in and out a little looks cooler. I suppose that the Ausies think long dead straight looks more prototypical.
Longest dead straight will be found in my yard. Otherwise, straights are nearly inadvertent, which is not the preferred method for the prototype. I think they would have preferred straight tangents to the extent possible, but they don’t look so hot on my layout.
I have a shelf layout on two levels. Top is14’ and the lower is 19’. I used bridge piers to get up one side and then down the other. Its in the oven. [garage].
Flip
Mine’s visible on the left side of this photo…must be 3 feet…most of my ‘straights’ have a slight curve in the middle…
I don’t have any dead strat runs at all. Straight track is boring to me, and shortens the run up some. Having curves makes the run longer, and adds more excitement…especially on a logging line.
I have a shelf layout that goes around a 20’ square room.Most of the layout is 24" deep.The only straight track will be in the staging area/yard and will be about 15’ long.All of the other track have sweeping curves.I would love to have a 40 -60’straight run
If you are using HO then a wild guess would be 87 times that long!
Having a shelf layout I have one 23 foot and a 10 foot straight run. Really like the straight trackage, it allows me to have a lot of industry for switching.
12’, it’s the longest I can fit in my 11x18’8" room and still have curves at the end. It’s actually on a slight diagonal just to give it a little interest and not be parallel to the edge of the benchwork.
Enjoy
Paul
My future N scale layout will have about a 10ft section in it. It will be on a grade and have a couple bridges on it so it won’t be too boring.
The club I was in had a hidden track dead straight, maybe 60 feet long.
My planned shelf layout, not much, I may get 8 feet if I am lucky.
But I am designing in variety, if I get a long straight it will be for design.
17 feet (give or take a 16th of an inch)
While curves are certainly more interesting, there is something satisfying about watching a long passenger train run down the straightaway with every car perfectly in line. I think every model railroad should have a long straight, just to show the world that you can lay a straight line track if you want to.
Mine’s only about 6 or 7 feet. Whoopee. But the whole layout is only 12 feet long, so I can’t put in much more.
[#ditto]
My longest straight is about 5ft, I have that on all for walls of my train room. Ya, only about a 10X10 room. I’ll be starting a new RR here in the next few weeks but i don’t look to have anything longer than that, mostly long sweeping curves.
My club’s layout is only 1/2 completed. It is a back to back E. Now there are 3 of the 6 legs/ peninsulas that vary from 40-50 ft. The longest double track mainline running past double end yard is 48 ft long. Other areas could be straight track but trains look so much better meandering through slight curves, rises and cuts. Other straight sections are broken up by adding tunnels and vast cuts. Most of this spline is still running over open benchwork. Should be quite impressive once fully sceniced.
Bob K.