Comments on: Track Layout Geometry

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:05:17 +0000

I’m not sure which layout you’re talking about, but if you look carefully at the image it’s not hard to count the track segments yourself.

By: Mark Z

Mark Z — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:33:34 +0000

In the last layout by Bill before my post, can you please tell me how many of each track piece is required? I am VERY new to trains and will be getting my first one tomorrow.

Thanks!

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:59:04 +0000

Don’t know, don’t care. I don’t use knock-off brands.

By: Charlie Johns

Charlie Johns — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:34:23 +0000

Do you know if the chinese nock -off brand of lego trains work with RC track? I am talking about Enlightment

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:25:22 +0000

You have to use the LEGO track. We call it L gauge, which is an accepted NMRA standard.

By: Chester Zmijewski

Chester Zmijewski — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:18:09 +0000

Will the Lego trains operate on ordinary O gauge track or do you have to use special Lego trac?
Thanks Chester

By: Clive

Clive — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:01:49 +0000

hi bill and others
i have a question about sidings i have tried to run 9V sidings but the circut isn’t complete (dead line) is there a way to have powered sidings? maybe using a pemblock, so i can run a small shunter and shift frieght cars.
also just to help you with one of the other questions. Me-models.com has now got aftermarket metal track that comes in the same geometry as 9V.
You can also make your own out of the newer non conductive track by applying adhesive metal striping usually used in Stained glass making. It’s freely available and carries current although i haven’t tried it yet. I have read from others who have successfully used it to increase there layout size. and they praise it for it’s value.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:52:45 +0000

I’m not familiar with those Commandments… the Big Yard I designed was mostly designed to fit the most complexity into the smallest space within the confines of LEGO track geometry, not so much to match any kind of realistic prototypical yard.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:39:17 +0000

After reading Craig Bisgeier’s “The Ten Commandments of Model Railroad Yard Design” (http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html ), I returned here to locate the various parts in the Big Yard and was wondering if you have comments on the design considerations that went into the Big Yard.
Thanks.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:14:06 +0000

Nope. I’ve seen plastic track made by some Chinese knockoff brand but not with the electric rails.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:18:01 +0000

Hi Bill,

Are you aware of any third-party producer of LEGO-compatible 9V track?

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:36:37 +0000

The height features of Track Designer have never worked well for me. I think there are some bugs there. I just lay one track atop the other and worry about height only when doing it for real. But then, I’ve never tried to cross tracks that way in a layout. Hills don’t work well – the trains slow when climbing and zoom when going downhill – so our club doesn’t use them.

Probably you should be using BlueBrick instead of TD anyway … TD is totally unsupported, and the author doesn’t even have the source code. I keep meaning to make that transition myself, but I have spent too much time in TD. But if you’re just starting out, use BlueBrick. http://bluebrick.lswproject.com/

By: David

David — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:32:45 +0000

In TD 2.0 what does the Z height have to be in order for a normal sized HO train to fit underneath for a crossover?

Thinking of how long a branch line has to be in order to cross back over the figure 8 mainline

By: David

David — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:12:05 +0000

OH YES!

Very very nice, thats exactly what I was looking for. I am trying to get as much switching and track pieces as I can get into this 4×8 layout (realism is not in effect here) mostly to play with and I would like to use standard pieces without having to resort to flex track. I have never been very good at using that stuff.

Thanks so much!

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:07:33 +0000

I exchanged some emails with the commenter and realized what he wanted was more like these:

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:22:53 +0000

LEGO has only one type of crossover, which has tracks meet at 90 degrees. That dictates that the minimum size of the layout would need to be 5’8 by 2’9.

If you let the tracks cross by having a bridge where one goes over the other, you could do it smaller.

By: David

David — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:00:57 +0000

Hi,

I have been messing around with the atlas track designer and I have been having a devil of a time trying to get it to do the layout I want. I feel that it is possible I’m just not doing whatever it is I need to do to get it working.

What I am trying to do I have (crudely) sketched down below. Its basically the smallest reversing figure 8 I can make so I can fit it into the internals of my 4×8 layout. I would like to put a switch or 2 on that reversing section and draw a branch line off around the outside of the 8 but that will be easy once I get the 8 figured out.

If you could please let me know the pieces I need to put in to make it happen I would be grateful. Please email it to me at [email address deleted] it would make my day.

…….____________……
…../……..\…../………\
…/…………\./…………\
..|…………..|…………..|
…\…………/.\…………/
…..\____/…..\____/

note: I dont have to have the center overlap, a simple crossing of any standard degree would be fine.

this would also be acceptable (and preferible if posible) the “oval-eight”

…….____________……
…../……..\…../………\
…/…………\./…………\
..|…………..|…………..|
…\…………/.\…………/
…..\____/___\____/

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:26:16 +0000

Actually if it’s from the 60s it’s probably 4.5v or 12v track, and the geometry is different for those…

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:35:32 +0000

This is pretty cool. I have some little train track bought by grandpa in the sixties. Somehow, I have been struggling to reconstruct it. Thanks for the info. I am sure this will be very helpful.

By: Bill

Bill — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:44:08 +0000

If you look at the table where I did the math, with 7 straight pieces on the diagonal you’d have a hard time lining it up with the rest of the track. There’s a lot of slop in the track connections though, so you can get away with a lot of things that I don’t recommend here because of the play in between track connections. However, that can cause derailing if it’s extreme enough, so to play it safe use the tips on this page.

LEGO has recently introduced some flexible track pieces which are 1/4 the length of a straight piece and have a hinge in the middle, so there’s a lot more you can do, but the new track doesn’t have conducting rails so it can only be used with battery-powered trains.