Help! I am a stock car and model railroading fan. I want to build an N scale layout that has an N scale dirt track inside of the train line. The track style will be a 3/8 mile eliptical.
What are the minimum dimensions I need for the race track portion of this layout? Thank you!
Hmmm. I am not an N scale guy, but . nscale … isn’t that 1/160 or the like? That means that 1 real foot = 160 nscale feet. 3/8 mile ( .375 * 5280 ) oval is 1980 feet. You can play with the end radii and straight sections to scrunch the oval down to something usable for your space. Just for giggles and grins, if you assume just a 3/8 mile circle - 1980/PI = 630 foot diameter - or about 3.9ft diameter in nscale. Whew, that made my brain hurt AND I don’t even know if the formula’s are correct! Google ‘circle math’ and plug in your own numbers.
Do you want to include the entire track in the middle? If yes, you could just throw 3/8 out the window and compress the track into what “looks” right, i.e. two straights and the turns, with maybe some grandstands etc.
btw, I too love dirt tracks, my pic is actually me driving one of my uncle’s dirt karts on his track
hi gentlemen,
in N-scale those dirt track cars will be very small, just over half an inch.
A 80x36 hollow core door could hold a 3/8 of a mile long railroad track. A simple oval with a 15" radius would be about 14 ft long; just over 3/8 scale mile.
Paul
My sugestion would be to place your cars on a paper racetrack and move the size of things around until it looks good but will still fit in your space. Model railroaders have to condense things terrably often even in N scale.
A lot depends on two things:
If you build on the much-maligned 4 x 8 plywood table, you have room for the track, some grandstands and a loop (mostly hidden) of track - possibly a rapid transit line with a station at the track’s main entrance. It would be fun to build, but, once finished, how long would it be before you’re bored to tears? (OTOH, you could spend years experimenting with ways to get the racers running. I can think of a half-dozen possible techniques involving air jets, magnets on a loop of string…)
If, like me, you have a double garage (or some 16 x 20 foot equivalent) your dirt track could occupy the space inside one turnback loop, leaving lots of room for your hump yard, containership dock… (Yeah, right! Neither will survive a reality check. Even in N scale a panamax container ship is over six feet long.)
Personally, I have long considered race tracks (for any kind of racer, two-legged, four-legged or wheeled) in the same category as airfields and container ports - good subjects to put on a photomural background. They might generate a few carloads of passengers if there is passenger service and an adjacent station. Everything else around them moves on rubber wheels.
Just as an afterthought - have you considered the adjacent parking lot for spectators?
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a Sumo ring)
Thanks to everyone for the response. This is my first attempt at a model railroad. For this attempt I am not really considering operations. I have very limited space so I will go with plan B - an N scale garage with a car and trailer out front. Thanks again!