While going through some of last years MRs I came across the article by Ed Vondrak with updated variations of the “Timesaver”(July 05). Has anyone tried to build this?? I laid it out full size per the plan shown and either screwed up somewhere or something. So I did it again and still ended up with no room for the turnouts as shown. Where have I gone wrong?? No I didn’t do it in O or G!
something must be wrong because according to the article, you should be able to build it in O, Sn3 or Hon3 scale (at least according to Ed Vondrak). I’m reading the article now.
I was trying to work out some of that on the Atlas track planning software and I couldn’t get it to go either. I finally just decided to use it as inspiration and created something “similar” to it.
Atlas uses 9" length for their #4 and 12" length for their #6 custom lines in HO. This is longer than the typical PECO/Walthers turnout. Could this be the reason why it’s not fitting?
Grab a copy of XTrakCad and try it with the PECOs
I tried it in N scale using both the code 80 and the code 55.
Thanks guys! I think the best thing would be to use it as a springboard to a similar project. The great thing about it though was the size. Being only 18" wide it could fit in as an extra layout that could be stored easily. But to make it work the width would definitely have to be increased.
Just maybe Ed Vondrak laid his own turnouts, built up from raw rail. That’s the way I would do it - but I admit that I’m an exception.
Chuck