Subject:
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Re: Dream rails
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Fri, 8 Nov 2002 20:33:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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762 times
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Very nice work Gianluca:
Couple of comments:
I don't know how big of an issue it is to people, but one element that needs
to be considered is tie spacing. According to my numbers, your 56 stud
radius, 22.5 degree curve track has about 2.40 studs of spacing (as measured
along the centerline of the track) between ties. Existing lego curves have
about 1.93 studs of spacing between the ties (of course, straight track has
2.00 studs spacing between ties).
Visually, as I look at your drawing, I don't think it makes that much
difference. What do others think? I know Lionel goes to great effort to
keep tie spacing consistent - but maybe it isn't a big deal.
I've played with a couple of variations myself and found that a 60 stud
radius, 11.25 degree curve is able to keep the tie spacing at 1.93 studs.
And likewise at 80 stud radius as well. btw, 80 studs is very close to the
radius you get when you combine a curve-straight-curve-straight-...
However, it would be preferable to keep things on the 16 stud standard.
A few other comments, I don't know if LEGO can produce a lego track section
reliably that is longer then 32 studs (the lenght of an existing switch
track). For that reason, I think it important to keep track curves shorter.
Thus larger radius curves, would require a smaller degree of 'bend'.
Specifically, 11.25 degrees works well.
But if they could make a 48 stud long track section, your switch design
would be awesome.
On the subject of modified curves, I've come up with a switch mod/hack that
converts an existing switch track such that the turnout is made up of 33.75
degrees (equivilant to one curve and a 1/2 curve). This provides for much
cleaner geometry. I've also made several 1/2 curve tracks and several
sections of straight track in modified length. One interesting side note
based on the previous work of others, I've found that I can combine a
section of straight track 3.65 studs long with a 1/2 curve to maintain
backwards compatability with the existing switch geometery.
How did I do this? I'll present on the topic at the Brickswest conference
in February.
Ben Fleskes
PNLTC
In lugnet.trains, Gianluca Morelli writes:
> Hi guys,
> I just put on brickshelf some pics of wish-lego-produced-them rails.
>
> These images are made from Autocad 14 and exported as bitmap
> images,then converted to gif images with Photo Editor.
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=270944
> here you can see 4 different curves.
>
> They all cover a 22.5° angle.
> as you can read,radii are respectively 40,56,88 and 104 studs
>
> the 40 studs one is the curve we all know and that lego produces.
> 56 wide is the outer radius that we all would like to have.
>
> Now,please note that lego town/trains is about 1/43 or "O" gauge scale.
>
> Compared to O gauge,lego trains are compressed in width (6 instead of 8
> or 9) and in lenght (a coach is 28 or 34 long,while an european coach
> is about 26 meters/87 feet long,that means about 75 studs.)
> This is positive,since train radius is 40 studs (rollercoaster
> radius!!).
> But,if you wish to model real size trains (I build 8x52 coaches,wich
> look good,but are 2/3 of real lenght),then you need wider curves.
>
> on the right of my pic,you can see 88 wide and 104 wide curved.
> Nice curves,eh? :-))
>
> Well,here in Europe,the smallest radii for HO gauge (1/2 big of O gauge
> and 8 wide lego trains) are 36 and 41.5 centimeters (about 14 1/2 and
> 16 1/2 inches),that means 72 and 83 centimeters in O gauge.
>
> This,translated into studs,is about 88 and 104.
> Plus,88 and 104 are modular to 40 wide radius (40,56,72,88,104,spaced
> of 16).
>
> It would be really nice a 70 long coach running on an 88 or 104 wide
> curve.
>
> Plus,the 104 curve has a unique caracteristic,that you can see in this
> pic:
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=270943
>
> It's a switch made of a 48 long straight and a 104 wide/22.5° curve.
> You can see that the curve has a size of 40 studs lenghtwise and 8
> crosswise (*),this meaning that with a countercurve you move of 80 (5
> straights) lenghtwise and 16 (standard distance between parallel
> tracks) crosswise
>
> So ,if lego produced this switch,a standard 104/22.5° curve would be
> used as countercurve and the switch would have a "normal" shape,not as
> lego switches with their zig-zag curve
> (and you could connect 2 switches together to link together 2 parallel
> tracks)
>
> What do you think of it?
>
> Cheers,
> Gianluca
>
> (*) well,40 and 8 are slightly approximated, exact values are
> 104*sin 22.5=39.799 and
> 104*(1-cos 22.5)=7.91
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Mio Yahoo!: personalizza Yahoo! come piace a te
> http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/?http://it.my.yahoo.com/
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Dream rails
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| (...) FEBRUARY ?? Geez! While I appreciate wanting a nice live audience for a public unveiling, couldn't you at least snap a few pics for us and whip up a brief post? I've been wondering if these kind of mods have been tried before, and what methods (...) (22 years ago, 8-Nov-02, to lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Dream rails
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| Hi guys, I just put on brickshelf some pics of wish-lego-produced-them rails. These images are made from Autocad 14 and exported as bitmap images,then converted to gif images with Photo Editor. (URL) you can see 4 different curves. They all cover a (...) (22 years ago, 7-Nov-02, to lugnet.trains)
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