Super-elevated curves and cant track from Kato and Tomix!

If there ever was a brilliant idea that- once you see it -you think "why didn't they think of this a long time ago?"  Well for me its got to be the new super-elevated curves (or 'cant' track as Tomix calls it) being put out now by both Kato (for Unitrack) and Tomix (for Finetrack).

Having once attempted to create this effect with traditional snap track (and quickly giving up in failure), I am so excited to see a good, easy to add system being produced!

So how do they look?  First, some comparisons:  From left to right below is the Kato 414/381 radius double-track, super-elevated curve (item 20-181); to the right of that (the second Thalys) is a traditional Kato 381 radius, to the right of that is the Tomix 391 radius, 'canted' (i.e. 'super-elevated), 'wide rail', single-track section of Finetrack (item # 1744); and just to the right of that (out of the picture) is another Relay Tsubame on another plain jane 381 radius):

I am super excited about how great they look!  Not sure how well it comes across in the photo, but even standing still it appears like the locomotives on the super-elevated track are actually moving compared to the traditional curves!

Here's another photo with a close up comparison of two Relay Tsubame's on curved track.  As above, the track on the left is the Tomix 'super-elevated' with a radius of 391, next to it is traditional Kato 381 radius:

Nothing I can say can do a better job than that photo!  So how does each system compare?

Here's a close up profile of the Unitrack Super-elevated curve:

As you can see, pretty apparent super-elevation!  As of this writing, Kato only produces a super-elevated curve in a double track version, which is a kind of bummer.  There is some news that they do plan on producing a single track version in the near future (no doubt prompted to do so by arch-rival Tomix!).

Below is a profile shot of the Tomix 'cant' track (or 'wide rail' or whatever....). 

Again, pretty cool super-elevation on this!  Of course, if you're not using Tomix Finetrack, you'll notice that they have this unusual and proprietary 'connector' thing on one rail.  The Kato Unitrack adapters sections are actually made just for these Tomix track sections (Side note: a lot of folks, myself included, were under the impression that the Kato Unitrack 'adapter section' was for all non-Unitrack connections, but that's not true.  Kato Unitrack is pretty straight forward code 80 and you can easily connect Atlas code 80, Minitrix, and Fleischmann and probably others that I don't have).

Some observations on these curved tracks:

• YOU WILL NEED THE EASEMENT SECTIONS for both the Unitrack and Finetrack super-elevated curves. The 'easement' sections are just what they sound like....traditional 'flat' on one end of the curve, which then 'eases' into the 'super-elevated'elevation on the other end.  Obviously, you connect your straight, non-super-elevated track to one end, and the super-elevated section to the other.  
• "Short" easements and "long" super-elevated curves.  In other words, the 'easement' sections for both lines are 22.5 degrees, whereas the super-elevated curves are 45 degrees.  This limits some of the flexibility you might otherwise want if your actual radius is greater than the 381/391 or 414 that are offered. More on this below.
  
• For whatever reason, both the Kato and Tomix versions are molded and painted to resemble concrete ties.  This is disappointing as it will 'stick out' when connected to traditional 'wood tie' track.  I have it in my mind to try and paint the ties, but that's something down the road when I've run out of interesting things to do.
• And yes, the Tomix Finetrack curve is unusually wide.  Not really sure what they're planning...perhaps it has something to do with increasing stability, or maybe its just an asthetic requirement to be consistent with other pieces they are producing. The Kato double track version is consistent with their other double track pieces.

Below is a photo showing pieces from both systems which will better illustrate why your radius options are a little challenged with both company's products.  The track on the top is the Kato double track, and the track below that is the Tomix single track version:

The smaller sections on the bottom right of both company's super-elevated curve systems is the 'easement' track (or what Tomix calls the 'approach track') and is 22.5 degrees. The longer pieces are the fully super-elevated curves, which are 45 degrees- and do not get any smaller unless you take a hacksaw to them!  Obviously, if you JUST want a 90 degree radius curve, you'll have to make a compromise and use two easements on each side one 45 degree curve section.  This will reduce the impact of large sweeping (and super-elevated!) curves unfortunately.

You could do what I tried, which is to put two easements on the leading edge of the curves, add in the super-elevated pieces, and then plug some traditional straight pieces between the two super-elevated curves.  Not sure if I'll stick with this arrangement, but it is possible and I haven't had any problems, but I also don't think I'm gaining anything over what I proposed in the above paragraph.

As you can tell from the above photo, I have the Unitrack super-elevated curves/easements on my layout.  I haven't had a lot of running time the past several months, but when I have run trains across these curves, I have not noticed any problems at all.  So far, so good!   I have yet to install or run trains on the Tomix curves.  These will be used to replace some standard Kato viaduct pieces (single track) to create a much more interesting, sweeping, SUPER-ELEVATED bridge that will replace the somewhat boring set-up I have now (check back on this blog in several months and hopefully I'll have an update on that).

Yes, I'm 'sold' on super-elevated curves!  I'm hoping that these products are successful and we can begin to see more variations in the sizes that are offered in the future so I can 'upgrade' all those traditional curves!

Here's the breakdown on the part numbers from each company:

Tomix "Wide Rail" 'canted' Finetrack:

Easements: Tomix Item 1754 "Wide PC Approach Track"  CR(L)C391-22.5-WP(F)  - This package includes two 22.5 degree easement curves. 
Super-Elevated Curves:  Tomix Item 1744 "Wide PC Curved Track C391-45-WP(F) - Includes 2x 45 degree sections.

To complete a 'half circle' or 180 degree curve, you'll need the  'easement' or 'approach' package (2 x 22.5 = 45 degrees), plus 2 packages of the Curved track (you'll end up with an extra piece unfortunately since you only need three of these [ 3 x 45 = 135, + the 2 easements/approach tracks which add another 45 degrees; so 135+45  = 180]. degrees). If you want a fill circle of track, then you'll just add another package of Easements and one more package of curves - and no extras!


Also, I just noticed that if the 391 radius is too large for you,  Hobbysearch Japan also has a 354 mm radius version out now! 

Kato Unitrack 

Easements: Kato Item 20-182 "Concrete Tie Double-Track Superelevated Easement Curve Let, Right 414/381-22.5" Similar to Tomix, you get 2 22.5 degree pieces in this package.
Super-Elevated Curves:  Item 20-181 "Concrete Tie Double-Track Superelevated Curve 414/318-45".  The options for Kato are the same as Tomix above regarding how many packages of each you'll need.

Also, Kato has the same curves in a double track viaduct configuration as well.  I've also heard that there's a smaller radius version of the double-track super-elevated  curves, but I haven't seen it.

Buildings and Building The City

Ahhh... Fall! While many of my American readers are thinking "Football!", for me, the cool air and shorter daylight means more time to spend on the layout! My current focus is downtown and the revisions I'm making to the layout driven by a desire for a more interesting, colorful and fun 'downtown'/ urban area on my layout (I spoke about this a bit here).

The image at top shows what sort of 'chaos' the layout is in right now...in fact, all trains have been removed and safely boxed up! What I am doing in the photo above is continuing to work on getting all of the various buildings I have to neatly align to more or less similar sized city 'blocks' (as I talked about here).

Today, I've been using a hot glue gun to attach the buildings together. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, but hot glue seems to be the answer. The photo below shows the buildings in variuos stages of getting connected to each other. The wood boards are used to prop up the buildings so the wiring for all the lights doesn't get in the way and result in the buildings being unevenly attached.

The below photo is just another close up of the buildings


In addition to putting together the city blocks, I'm also 'modding' out the buildings that haven't seen any attention yet. I recently won a neat lot of older German N scale buildings (Kibri, Vollmer, etc...) and am now updating with new paint, lights, advertising, people, and other details. The below was a fairly simple building, but lights and some minimal detail have made this one of my favorites! :-)


Believe it or not, this building has 12 LED's in it! 4 for the 'backlit' "Super 24" sign, 2 SMD's for signs/advertising, 2 more for the rooftop billboard, 3 for the store interior, and one to backlight the upstairs apartments.








This is another building from my eBay 'score' that will need some work. The 'paper backing' for the upstairs apartment windows works fine, but for the ground floor shop display windows, I'll need to something a bit more interesting. Fortunately I just got a new shipment of LED's and resistors so I can start to add the lighting soon!

Okay, enough blogging...it's a rainy Saturday afternoon, the family is all out doing what they like to do...so I'm back to train room!

Creating Sidewalks

Having (finally) come to a point where I think have 'enough' (is there really ever enough? :-) ) buildings to start putting my city together, the question of how to tie together various buildings- from different manufacturers- needs to finally be answered. Specifically, how to create a city scene with consistent looking sidewalks especially since most manufacturers have various ways of adding (or not) this feature to the structure.

Its very apparent that just using the 'default' sidewalks from various structures, and patching the gaps for those buildings without sidewalks, just won't look right. You also may, as I do, want to add street lights and other features. Additionally, given that every building in my city now has electricity (this is a modern city after all!) that means a LOT of wires need to be managed.

My solution is to create 'city blocks' that will have all the various buildings attached to the 'block' and allow for me to create a consistent sidewalk look. In addition, by unifying multiple buildings on one piece of 'city block', I can more easily manage the various electrical wires and connections.

In order to have 'sidewalks' that sit flat, are sturdy enough to hold multiple buildings, and stand up to the drilling etc... (to allow for the holes for the electrical wires) it has to be thin and rigid. The best choice I found is 1.5mm styrene sheets. According to some online scale calculators I used, where 1.9mm = 1 foot, then my sidewalk height is around 7 inches, which seems to be about right (and visually it looks good, see photo next to car).

As for how to set up my city block, I tried different combinations of buildings; looking for the best combination of height, width, and length, to give the appropriate affect. The photo shows a mock up of what I think will be 'city block #1'. The overall dimensions of this block are 8" x 16", a second block (not shown) is a bit wider at 9" x 16".

After determining the dimensions for my city blocks, I carefully cut the corners using a coin as a guide. I then made very light 'grooves' in the styrene for the sidewalk markings. I made a very small 'outline' for the curb around the entire outside edge, and then added in a grid of small, light grooves with the hobby knife for the main sidewalk part itself.

I used a 'concrete' colored spray paint from the local hobby shop. After that dried, I used some diluted Citadel black and brown ink (the Games Workshop brand, but I think any dilated paint would work just as well) to darken the grooves I made with the knife earlier.

I'll post some photos of the sidewalks and 'city blocks' once I've attached the buildings (the plan is to use hot glue to attach them, but not sure how well that will work) lights, and everything is all wired up!

The Scale Question: 1:150 and 1:160 buildings

Many of my building projects lately have been based on Japanese 1:150 models. I had been noticing these buildings online for quite some time, but the fact that they weren't 1:160 scared me off, until some kind soul on of the N Scale forums told me not to worry too much about it. So I jumped in!

In the spirit of that original, anonymous poster who encouraged me to give the 1:150 buildings a try, I thought I would try and share some 'side by side' comparisons of relatively common buildings found in North America, and put some typical Japanese buildings next to them.

Example 1, below, from left, is the Tomix (actually, Tomytec) Cylindrical Building, and a Kato office building, alongside a (slightly modified) cheap Model Power building. Just by looking at the photo, it does appear that the Kato's doorways are slightly smaller, and the Tomix doorways seem even smaller still. However, comparing the first four stories of the two buildings on the right, it seems like they are pretty close. The Tomix (or Tomytec?) cylindrical building does appear to be slightly smaller than the other two, but how noticeable this would be to a casual observer is hard to know.

Example 2 (again, below), is another comparison between a relatively common N Scale building, the "drive in" (can't recall the official name) compared to the Tomix 7-11 convenience store. Any differences between these two are, for me, very hard to notice, and they look perfectly compatible.

For my 3rd and final example, again, another standard Model Power building compared to a TomyTec 'Town Collection" building. In this case, the doorway on the Tomytec tea is noticeably smaller. For me, this is probably too much, and this building would likely be hidden in a little noticed area of a city (near the back, where the small door way is not noticeable and adds to depth perception?) or it becomes a candidate for some creative kit-bashing.

So what's the final verdict? In most cases, I have found the differences too hard for the casual observer to notice, the exception to this seems to be the Tomytec models (which, for reasons unknown to me, are different than Tomix models) which do appear to be noticeably smaller when placed nearby a standard 1:160 (or even Kato) structures. However, if these sort of details are something you can't live with, I would recommend you avoid the 1:150 structures. If, like me, you find the differences hard to notice if not negligible, then I would suggest you try one like I did and see how you like the results. There's a lot to choose from for under $20 and a whole new world of interesting, MODERN, buildings are yours to be had!

The one thing I find perplexing, and maybe I just have this whole scale thing wrong, but it seems to me that 1:150 should be LARGER than 1:160-not smaller-which is, as shown above, the apparent pattern! Anyone with any ideas on this please leave a comment and fill me and others in!

Playing around with downtown

Here's a photo of the downtown area with some of the newer buildings and structures I've been working on. This is a big part of "Layout Version 3", which will include a much denser downtown, a trolley line, and a 'real' passenger train station/extension to the layout. I expect most of this will be my 'Fall project' on the layout, so for the time being I am just 'thinking' about what to do and collecting materials for the ultimate start or construction!

Layout Version 2 Overview

I talk about my final selection of RailModeller to help me design (and redesign) my layout in this post here.   In this post, I'll share with you the 'plan' and an overview of the layout.  Below is the current plan.   The 'grey areas' are elevated sections (about 2" high).  The three main colors represent three seperate lines (red and pink are the same line, but the red color is 'pink' where its elevated, if that makes sense!).

So here is a break down of my three lines, with some photos to give some perspective on where they are on my layout.

THE THREE LINES AND COLOR CODES:

RED LINE:

The "Red" Line is the main line. This is the line with two 2% grade (using Woodland Scenics grade risers); one goes up...the other brings it 'down'.    I colored the actual grade sections in a sort of 'orange/peach' color. The elevated portion of the main line is in 'pink', while the bottom level is 'red'. The idea was to change the colors as the elevation rose.  The below photo shows the Relay Tsubame on one of the two 'main line' tracks that makes sort of a siding on the bottom level as the main line comes down the grade.  The elevated section of this same line is the track closest to the camera on the bridge in the background.

On the other side of the layout from the yard, is a long stretch of track using Woodlands Scenics 2% grade risers to get an elevation of a little over 2 inches.

After coming off the grade shown above, the main line enters some single track Kato viaducts where it curves around and crosses over the main line and the "green line".  From here it continues to where the viaduct is seen in the background in the above photo with the yard.

BLUE LINE:

The "Blue Line" is the 'suburban' line. This line is on the higher level. Its just a basic 'dog-bonish' loop that runs inside the main line on the elevated section of the layout. Unfortunately, some of the double track sections are in red when they should be blue (see above). The three cool features on this line are an extra long siding (part of an abandoned plan that would have included another inside loop!);

 the Suburban station (in...uh...my 'downtown'),

 and the rock cliffs:

GREEN LINE:

The "Green Line" is sort of the 'country' line. It runs on the 'ground' level, and spends most of its time meandering under bridges....

 and through a relatively long tunnel on the top right that is hidden by a long piece of sintra that has trees and ground cover on it. The picture below shows the tunnel area with the cover removed:

GREY AREAS

The 'grey areas' are yards or industrial sidings.

While most of the yards and track are Kato Unitrack, there is a small industrial spur that comes off the blue line on the elevated section. This is mostly Minitrix track and switches.

And finally, there is a small loop on the left side of the layout that comes off the 'Green Line' and sits at the 'ground level', which I did not add to the plan. This loop will likely be removed and replaced with one end of a point to point trolley line I am thinking about adding.

Layout Design Software

Well, its been a few weeks since my last post. The nice weather will no doubt take some time away from trains over the next few months, but I've still got plenty of projects to keep my busy.

One of those projects has been getting a new 'digital' recreation of my layout built on my Mac - so I can play around with some ideas for the layout that have been in my head.

Since I really wanted a track layout design program that was Mac OS X native, that limited my choices. I looked at Xtrakcad (and found it difficult to use on my PC), I've used RRTrack in the past (which was okay), looked at WIntrack (no Tomix library) but none of these had either the ease of use or Mac compatibility that I was looking for.

I finally ended up going with RailModeller. Despite its biggest drawback (no elevations or grades!), it works great on my Mac, has an easy interface, and very nice looking schematics.

An initial result of my RaiModeller efforts is the image posted above, which is my current layout (and what I refer to as 'Version 2') To see a bigger image of the trackplan/layout, click it and it will open at a large size.

RailModeller was easy to use (but my advice is before you buy, check out their free demo). However, some of the product descriptions were still in German (the Fleischmann and Tomix libraries are two examples) and -not sure if its me or the program- but there are places where the actual track I have on the layout just won't fit (keep in mind, I did this backwards. As the layout is done, I had to check the track on my layout then entered it into the design program). This forced me to take some creative license in some areas and, for example, leave out a 64mm straight, add a 29mm straight, and so forth (for the most part, the issue was in the lengths of the straight track areas, all the curves worked out fine!). So the image is not exactly what's on my layout (it may, in fact, be better!), but close enough....

One easy to use and useful feature is the 'color' changing feature. Unfortunately, it will only let you select one color per piece, so if you have Kato double-track sections, they will be one color when you may want to have separate colors for each track (I am sure there is a way around this in the Rail Editor program that comes with it, but that's a whole other project I don't want to get into right now).


That is pretty much it...to compare my track plan to the real layout....see this post!

5 Months ago....

Wow. I was just looking at some photos from a few months ago, and I was amazed at how much work I've been able to get done in that time. The above photo is the layout last November (November 17 to be exact), the below photo is from early March. Comparing the two...I get exhausted! I am glad that part is behind me! The cool thing is its been a lot of fun and now I find myself 'inventing' new things to work on (like my 'urban development' program currently underway in Quinntopia). What a fun hobby!

"The Man Cave" (aka Train Room)

To complete my overview of my process to build a layout (see this post...WARNING: I'm an amateur and just trying to have fun...the clinic on L-girder construction can be found elsewhere! :-) ), here - at last - is where all the action happens: My garage! I'm fortunate enough at this point in life to have a home (and a wife who supports!) where I am able to carve out the 3rd stall in our 3 car garage for my 'train room'. My father-in-law helped me build a wall to separate the 'train room' from the cars and other stuff, which means its a relatively nice space for the trains. We don't live in the driest climate here in the Pacific Northwest, but winters are moderate and a couple of space heaters help to keep the garage warm and the local electric utility in the black through the winter. Like a lot of folks, I dream of a basement or other 'real' space, but I've actually come to enjoy the 'solitude' and peace that comes with having a place to do 'train stuff' away from the home (plus, I can leave my junk out on things I'm working on and not worry about any complaints about the mess!)

N Scale Layout construction overview

Now that most of the scenery and all the major construction is complete, I thought I would create one post that sort of summarized, in an appropriate chronological order, the steps I took to build and create my N Scale layout.

1. The Plan. As everyone who has ever contemplated building a layout has confronted, there are many questions and decisions to be made about your layout plan, all of which are constrained by the physical space you have to build a layout and whether or not the layout will need to be somewhat portable, temporary, or permanent. The below posts share some of my experiences with my first layout, which was essentially two ovals with a couple of sidings. The third post talks about the new plan, of which most posts on this blog are focused on.
•My current track plan and the software I used.
•My original, single 'hollow core' door N Scale layout
•Thoughts and perspective on my first layout, and what I wanted to improve. Maybe some similar things your are thinking about, and how my thinking evolved.
•The expansion from a single hollow core door to a 'double door' layout.


2. Where to put the layout. This is really about the physical constraints or the location where your layout will be located. My layout is located in an extra stall in my garage, but the plan and solution for the table -which needed to be both semi-portable and adjustable to adapt to the sloping elevation of a garage floor- are as suitable for an indoor room or basement layout. Mostly, this is about the benchwork I created to support and keep level a hollow core door layout using two doors.

3. Putting the layout foundation together. Once you have a plan (and the track to create that plan), and a suitably level 'table area' to start your layout, its time to start adding all that track and scenery.
•My approach, based on some less than desirable past experiences, keeps the track away from all the messy glue and landscaping material and takes advantage of the Unitrack track system by Kato to ensure flawless track operations.
•I also provide some general thoughts on my Kato Unitrack experience here, which might be helpful in your planning process.
•Some thoughts on the connectors used in the Kato Unitrack track system here if you are thinking of finding similar connectors to make the other electrical connections on your layout similarly 'plug and play' as the Kato connectors.

4. Scenery. I found the scenery process for this layout one of the most enjoyable parts of it, which surprised me. The reason for this was I removed all the track (mostly) from the layout for this process (see this post if you missed my strategy on this) which allowed me to go to town using all sorts of techniques without worrying about gumming up pricey switches!
• Adding rocks. If your plan considers some sort of mountainsides, the time to add rocks is before any grass or foliage is applied. My approach was the standard 'Woodland Scenics' process.
• Adding grass. I 'discovered' a method of applying the standard grass flocking material that was much more satisfying than other methods. The quick explanation is combining white glue and acrylic paints, then sprinkle on your flocking material. You get a good base color and solidly adhered flocking material without having to spray a ton of dilated glue mixture everywhere.
• Adding foliage. "Foliage" is a type of meshed ground cover that is more commonly used in layout scenery in Europe, but using the above technique I found great results with this type of product.
• Miscellaneous. Do you have need for a bridge that does not have any sort of commercially available solution? Build your own!

5. Put the track down and run trains! Again, since I did all the scenery without the track on the layout, this was the fun part!

Urban Development at 1:160

The project that I have been working on lately revolves around trying to get somewhat typical lighting into my buildings and structures. I've always been interested in this part of the hobby/layout building, and some recent successes with LED lights, which are great given their relatively long life span and low heat output, have made some of my desires- to add more 'realistic' types of lighting effects to buildings -very achievable and very affordable. It also hasn't hurt to give me an opportunity to work on my soldering skills!

I first started using 'pre-assembled' LED lights, particularly the 'universal' kind, in some buildings, which I was purchasing online from ModelTrainSoftware.com. While these work quite well, at around $5 a pop, I figured it would be far more cost effective if I figured out how to do it myself.

There are really only two things to do after I decided to start trying to 'build' my own LED lights. The first is that I am going to have to learn to solder. The second, is to figure out all of those voltage, ma, and resistor calculations. There is no short cut for the former, however, for the later, I've found the LED Center and their "linear1" website which features a foolproof (nearly) calculator for both single LED's and the LED's in series.


From there, its all about figuring out your voltage source, and then getting the right LED's and the right resistors. I've started to get these from eBay given the amazingly cheap prices you pay for quantities of 50 or 100!

The lighting projects I am most interested in are adding some 'back lit' signs to buildings and signs as they seem to be nearly everywhere. Its an area of lighting that I expect to give a lot of 'color' and 'life' to my layout. Other than neon signs, these seem to be the most common method for stores and other commercial entities. You can kind of see the effect I am going for in the above picture, which has a typical 'unlit' sign between two 'backlit' signs (which is clear plastic added in after cutting out the original plastic in those parts of the building).

Its a bit hard to tell from the photos (I could not get the right shutter speed to show it accurately) but what I've done is collected various types of clear, flat or cube-shaped plastic, reduced it to the appropriate size for the sign (which means lots of hand sanding, difficult cutting, or grinding on my belt sander), drilled a small hole for the LED to be glued into on the 'back' side, and applied a white decal to the sign front (I am using the Testors Inkjet, white backed decals, which have not been altogether succesful). You can see one building face in progress, with all of the LED's, wires, and resistors sticking out.

Wallah! Backlit signage! However, I have mixed feelings about the progress so far. The LED's certainly provide enough luminosity to appear like 'backlit signs',but the decals are a weak link, which is not too surprising. I have tried 'transparent' inkjet stickers (the kind you can get at the office supply stores), but my results with those were awful; they just don't 'absorb' enough ink. On the other hand, while the decals absorb enough ink (in fact, I cannot use 'photo-quality' settings with my printer as that puts too much ink on the decal and it melts away in the water, even after sealing with dullcote or the Testors decal bonder sprays) but lose a lot of crispness in the process. I may double up some decals in order to add some 'crispness' and color.

One final comment on LED's is that they have a very 'focused', almost spotlight-like beam. This is great for headlights, but not great for signage. I'm trying a lot of different things to overcome this affect, from sanding the LED to sanding the clear plastic the LED will be mounted in (to diffuse the light beam a bit), but one of the better looking signs is the backlit "Burger Konig" sign in which I did not embed the LED's in the plastic, but rather attached them further behind the sign with a glue gun (glue guns, of course, emitting that clear gooey mess, which works pretty well for 'diffusing' light). This distance back from the sign allows for the narrow light 'funnel' from the LED's (of which I used 3 in this case) to 'spread' rather than maintain a tight circle.

I'll add additional updates and photos on this project, hopefully I will get a 'city block' done soon and can move onto other parts of the layout!