Could you tell me the spacing between yard tracks? Fom track center to track center.
Thanks,
Chris
Could you tell me the scale and era? David B
In HO I use two inches. That scales to about 14.5 feet, which is a teeny bit wider than many prototype railroads used (13 feet), but some used spacings up to 15 feet,\ to my knowledge, so it’s right in there.
Whale… It is indeed a simple matter… It is whatever your turnouts will give you. Higher number turnouts will put your tracks closer together, but will also make your yard shorter. LION has nothing against cutting turnouts so that they will fit the task at hand.
Freight cars in a classification yard need less space between them, passenger cars in a layup yard may require more space.
The departure tracks may even want a vehicle path between the tracks so that the car inspectors can ride out there inspecting the trains before departure.
Go with what looks good, nit-pickers will get run over by a train.
I forgot to mention that the layout is Ho scale, and modern era. What would be the spacing for
mainline, and spacing for yard tracks?
Thanks,
Chris
Chris
Go with what looks good to you, and remember the only person you have to please is yourself. but if you want it, 14’ is I think the correct distance between two mainline tracks.
Neil
If you are going to run long passenger cars, for instance, if you have adjacent curves they will need adequate spacing for clearances. So consider your mainline parallel spacing with what spacing you will use on the incoming / outgoing curves, though they don’t have to be identical if you make smooth transitions. So, the considerations are prototype spacings, practical additional spacing for fingers (e.g., yard tracks), curve spacings for equipment clearance, and visual aspects (e.g., straight to adjacent curves).
In Linn Westcott’s “101 Track Plans for Model Railroaders” he offers that sharp (18"r), conventional (24") and broad curves (30") minimum spacing ought to be 2-1/2", 2-1/4" and 2", respectively. The NMRA website has more specific recommendations with various equipment types. Westcott also notes that straight track spacing can be as close as 13 scale feet (1.79") for realism, though his plans and many builders use the 2" broad curve spacing typically.
See what you like.
2" is sort of a good starting point(14’6"). That is what much HO track system use for things like cross-overs. On the prototype, I have seen anywhere from 12’(really old yard trackage) to 13’-14’ for double track main lines. For spacing on ‘curves’, you will need to make the track a little wider so you equipment does not ‘side-swipe’. The NMRA has a good chart to use for calculating curved track spacing:
http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/s-8.html
IIRC, there is a government regulation since the early 70’s that mandates a minimum of 15’ track centers on new construction For my HO yard tracks, I use the 2" track centers. Our club has 2.5" track centers in the yards and in the staging areas - To allow ‘fat fingers’ the get to a car without derailing cars an the adjacent tracks. When laying out the yard, there were a lot of ‘fitter’ sections of track needed so that everything lined up.
BTW, modern prototype construction currently is using even wider separations so that m-o-w crews can stay ‘mounted’ on their equipment when a train passes on an adjacent track. The UP has been using 20’ track centers and BNSF has been using 25’-30’ track centers on a lot of new construction. Even the regional DM&E has been using wide track centers like on the Janesville, MN siding.
Jim