Starting to lay track but am new to this type of thing. How far apart do I lay side by side track center to center? Thought I read somewhere it would be 1 and 1/4th inches but this could be wrong.[:D]
Thanks for your help.
1 and 1/4" is good on curves. You can go 1 and 1/8" on straights.
Since you are starting your installation of tracks and will be running parallel roads,I suppose that you are planning a crossover or more and that you have your turnouts on hand.My suggestion is that you put two identical TO’s opposed to form a crossover and measure the width required between the adjacent tracks to match with them.1 1/4 in. is a good reference,although you may find slight differences depending on the turnouts used.1 1/8 is a great idea for space saving but TO’s may not fit.By the way,these measurements are between track centers.
Far enough that the cars don’t interfere with eachother and you can get to them in the event of a derailment(We All know how rare those are[swg])
Thank you for your help. I’ll use 1 and 1/4 everywhere as there is room and I purchased a spacing tool on e-bay.
When we say 1 1/4 inches, is that based on the NRMA minimum curve recomendations? Thus if you have a tighter curve then what is recommended in the spec, could you perhaps need additional space on curves due to overhand of the cars, example 85 foot passengers on 24 inch curves.
Here are the NMRA Standards:
http://www.nmra.org/standards/s-8.html
N Scale is at the bottom of the page. It looks like you might need just a bit more than 1.25" for long equipment on sharp curves, they sort of cut off the table at that end, I guess 'cause we shouldn’t be trying that anyway!
Bear in mind that this question applies to N scale… At 24" radius you’d barely have any overhang at all (that’s like close to 48" in HO!).
Atlas offers its curved track pieces in 9 3/4" and 11" radius, and are designed to be used parallel, giving you a seperation of 1 and 1/4" (and I think that’s based on NMRA standard for curves that tight). You can reduce the seperation as your curve radius increases, but to a point (obviously). You want AT LEAST 11" on the inner curve before you can even think about running long passenger cars.
Here is one of my curves, with track centers 1 and 1/4" apart. The inner curve is 13.5" and the outer 15" radius, and the curves are superelevated by 0.020".
What kind of tool is that? I’d like to see one if possible.
Thanks.
ft-fan: One such tool is made by MLR. You can see a photo at http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/479-5002