Hello all, I’m new here (and to model trains) so if this is in the wrong place then please move it. My dad has collected model trains for 30 years. But never put up a shelf mounted train.
I think I’ve figured out how to draft/design my corners on 24"x24" plywood for an O42 curve. I’ll explain then take all opinions.
room is approx 11x19 rectange with not so square corners.
I was planning to take exactly have of a 4x8 3/4" plywood and find the dead center drive a nail there. take a piece of string attach to a pencil/marker from nail to pencil will be exactly 20.5". this should give me 3.5" at the ends for my 1x4 boards that are really only 3.5 inches wide. All makes sense if you draw it on a piece of paper. If I go with a 21’ radius from nail to pencil then it leaves me only 3 inches, not enough for my 1x4.
Am I on the right track here. seems an O41 curve would not be noticeable to make the connections to the 1x4s.
I gather you are using O-gauge track (three rail from the sounds of it). Are you asking how to build a shelf around the room to put the trains on? Do I gather the shelf is 24" wide which is why you mention a 24"x24" corner? I don’t understand what a 4’x8’ sheet of plywood has to do with the 1"x4" that is mentioned. That part almost sounds like you are trying to figure out how large a curve you can put onto a 4x8.
Then the statement “seems an O41 curve would not be noticeable to make the connections to the 1x4s”, really throws me for a loop.
I gather that you are trying to make the curved corner sections for your O gauge track. Are these to connect to 1x4s at the 90 degree tangents? If you cannot get those 3 1/2" pieces from a 2x2 piece of plywood, then you will need to redraw them on a larger section of plywood to get that radius you want. For strength and mounting ease, why not leave the remaining corner portion of the ply and only cut out the arc. This allows for better stability of the corner piece and will be easier to mount w/ shelf brackets. You may need to go wider than a 1x4 for those straight sections, say, 1x6 or ??
If you are in O scale, go to the top of this page and click on Classic Toy Trains, they do much more with the larger scales. Folks here are mostly in N and HO.
Not to chase you away, just to get you into a place that may have more similar situations.
STOP!!! Pick up a copy of Shelf Layouts, by Kalmbach Publishing. It will save you money and cuss words. I wish I had read this book BEFORE I started my shelf layout. There several things I would have done different and that would have made my layout much better and enjoyable.
Curves for sectional track in O-Gauge are specified as the diameter rather than the radius as in HO or N Gauge. So O42 forms a 42in diameter circle of track or O72 (a “broad curve”) would be 72 inches in diameter, or 36in radius.
For my shelf modules for corners, I take a 2x4 sheet. from one corner I measure 12 inches both ways on all corners, then make diagonal lines at the 12 inch marks. Cut them off, instant corner, cut and shape to needs. It leaves a diangonal hole but you are going to scenick background that arent ya… but you can fill that with the cut corners. I would make some O-42, O-27 etc curves out of cardboard shapes to test track laying.
Why go to the trouble of making templates; why not just use the track?
And I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m a visually oriented person. I have understood little or nothing of all these measure here, cut there descriptions. A CAD drawing or a hand drawing scanned into the computer would do wonders for understanding what everyone is talking about. As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Ya I’m not sure I’m understanding the original post completely yet…but of course that won’t stop me from answering. [:)]
First, If you’re talking about cutting up a sheet of plywood for a shelf layout, check the local “big box” home supply store first. Many of them sell plywood in different sizes, like 2’ by 8’ or 2’ by 4’ etc. so you don’t need to cut up a full sheet. If you’re talking about building a shelf 4" wide and using that for the “layout”, I don’t think you’d want to do that. [:O]
For my HO layout I’m using 16" wide John Sterling shelves (also from the home supply store). On a corner using the 16" shelfs, I can comfortably fit in a Kato Unitrack 31" radius curve…in fact, I could just squeeze it in if I were using John Sterling 12" wide shelves. So that’s a bit over 60" diameter. Even though O track is wider, I would think O-42 would fit even the 16" wide shelfs, you might even be able to go with larger diameter curves. On 2’ wide shelves I imagine you could probably do O-72.
But as suggested, I’d go to the hobby shop and get some O-42 and experiment a little with the actual shelfs you plan to use. BTW for a new layout I’d shy away from tubular track, which I think is the only way right now you can get O-42(??) Maybe check out Lionel Fastrack and Atlas O-three rail lines.
Thank you for all your responses. It is an O guage tubular track. Please keep in mind that this is my first attempt at any kind of layout for any type of train. Secondly I’m on a very tight budget. That is why I’ve chosen to go with 1x4x8 boards, and tubular track. All of the mumbo jumbo on my first attempted post was trying to figure out the proper curvature to the 24"x24" square corner pieces to match the track curve of O42 42" (diameter circle), and have it match up to the 3.5" 1x4 boards at the end of the curve. I had to order the track and it just came in today, that is why I couldn’t lay it out on the floor and eyeball it
Ah I think I see now. The 1x4 boards ARE the shelf. Are you putting the boards directly against the wall or just out a little ways from it? Assuming the board is flush against the wall and the track running right through the center then the O42 curve would have to be sest 1.25" back from the edge of a 24"x24" corner section. However, I would be worried in that configuration that the trains overswing would hit the wall so you might want to test if it can really be put that close. I would move the track out closer to the hanging edge of the 1x4. Pity they don’t make 1x5s because that would be almost a perfect match for the 24"x24" corners and an O42 curve.
On the other hand if you are putting the 1x4 shelf out a ways from the wall and fitting the O42 perfectly onto the 24"x24" corner, then just center the board 21" from the front. That would put the 1x4 1.25" from the wall.
On the third hand one could put the 1x4 against the wall and make the corners to be 22.75"x22.75" and have a perfect fit of the O42 curve on the corner and alignment with the center of the 1x4. Once again heed my concern about side swiping the wall with overhanging equipment right where the corner goes into the straight
Mark, You have seemed so resourcefull in the past I am surprised you didn’t know that. [:O] Would it have made a difference if he would have said O27? O42 and O54 are fairly recent addtions to the template line. For years and years O27 was the small tight stuff, Just O or O31 was considered “standard”, while O72 was the big stuff.
I was going to keep the 1x4 flush against the wall and cut an O 41 curve into my 24"x24" corner pieces so they line up flush with my 3.5in wide 1x4s. Also was going to keep the track as close to the inside edge as possible then in the near future maybe install a low profile guard rail.
It’s easy to see if you draw it on a piece of paper. Make a 48" perfect square, Make 4 perfect 24" squares inside of the 48incher, then draw a perfect circle with a 20.5" radius from dead center of the 48" square. That yields 3.5" at the corners of my 4 corner pieces. Hope that makes better sense. I don’t think the little difference in curvature will be that noticeable. Remember I’m on a very tight budget.
Keep in mind that straight ‘stick’ lumber in recent years has been hard to find, at least in my experience. If you go to a lumber yard or home supply store you may have to spend a long time sorting thru 1" x 4" pine pieces to find enough straight ones - and you may not find enough straight ones anyway. Lumber in recent years seems to have all kind of twists and kinks to it. You could probably pay more to get better quality wood (i.e. not pine) but then you’d be spending more money.
Remember too you’re going to have to do something with the floor to protect the trains, if the room doesn’t already have thick carpeting or something. A train running on a 4" wide board will have no margin for error, any derailment is going to result in the train hitting the floor. Also, you’ll have no clearance on the side of the shelf so it will be easy for a visitor (or you) to accidently bump into the shelf causing a derailment and the inevitable trip to the floor.
Also you’re not going to have room for anything except a simple loop of track: no industries, no sidings, and of course no buildings, trees, hills etc. I’d suggest looking into the possibility of building a “real” shelf layout, even if it takes longer to build because you can only buy a little of the materials at a time. A shelf even just 8"-12" wide is going to work out a lot better in the long run. To be honest, if you’re just going to have an unsceniced loop of track on a plain 4" wide shelf, you might as well just get some FasTrack or something similar and set up the trains on the floor.