Easing into 96" radius curves

There is a very deep thread on this subject.  Unfortunately I'm on my cell phone but I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction.

There are numerous youtube videos and web articles (too many to list here) on the subject including formulas and methods. Just Google it. I suggest that you combine super elevation with your easements.  It's not hard to do and with those longer cars you will find it greatly improves appearance and performance of your trains.  You will be well pleased with the result.   

Do yourself a favor and watch as many of the videos as you can to pick up small tips and slightly different approaches on the subject.  All are helpful.  Have fun. Good luck!   

So you're telling us that your curves will be 16 feet in diameter?

Since he only has 110" to work with, I think he means O96 or 96" diameter.

Essentially, this subject can be as complicated or as simple as you choose.  Me, I prefer simple.  So, to ease into an O96 curve, you might start with a piece of O108, followed by a piece of O102 and then start using O96 to finish a quarter of the full circle.  You should also then ease out of the curve in reverse order that you eased into the curve.  To better understand, start with an O108, followed by an O102, followed by a bunch of O96s, and ending with one O102 and one O108.

Of course, this explanation assumes you are using sectional curves and that O108 and O102 sectional curves exist.  If not, just use 2 consecutively larger curve pieces to enter and exit your curve.  Just be aware that the easement process increases the diameter of your constructed curve to something slightly larger than 8 feet.

Chuck

I'm also in the middle of thinking through some layout planning and keep hitting that same question - if easing in gets better, why not just start with a bigger curve to begin with...and then re-thinking the whole plan.  I started at a desire for nothing smaller than O-72.  Moved to O-80.  Then O-88.  Then O-96.  It never ends.  Maybe the missing link will help ease my pain....forgive the pun.

Using Atlas track, has anyone tried using 1/3 of a 0108 track section to enter into an 072 curve? Doing limited experimenting with this it seems to look good enough for easement, but I don't have the set where I can run trains through it at speed.

I was just about to say that 96" radius curves really do not need spiral easements. But if you are talking about O-96, which is 48" radius, no spiral easement will help the appearance of 21" cars.  

I have a 74" radius loop, with superelevation and no spiral easements.  You do not see a lurch from tangent to curve, but seeing the train lean in on the curve was worth the effort.  My 21" K-Lines make it ok, but my SP articulated chair car needed extra space over the center truck, and my larger steamers need tapered tail beams.

O-96 implies three rail.  I have seen very well done 3-rail track, but there is no way to make it look like real track.

Using 1/3rd of an O108 piece of curve track is essentially worthless because most passenger cars and longer engines are going to be longer than that small piece of track.  The whole idea of easements is to make longer equipment run better thru curves and to be as realistic looking as possible.  If you search this forum for easements, you will see some threads where people used 4 different sizes of curve sections, starting from largest to smallest size, just to make 1/4th of a circle.  They then merely reverse the sizes coming out of that quarter turn to have a fully eased 1/2 circle.

Whether or not this process is worth your space resources, time and money (some of those bigger curves can be quite expensive) is completely up to you.  But using various sectional curve sizes to create any easement is the easiest way to go.

Chuck

While laying flex track, I've used the "bent stick" method with good results. I used a yardstick or piece of lath to draw the easement. This method provides a more or less true spiral curve easement. Dimensions in the diagram are for HO scale I believe, but can be scaled up easily.

I just did numeric calculations going from a curvature of 1/28 inches (28in radius) to a curvature of 0 (infinite radius) in 90 degrees.  I have a final radius of about 38.1 inches.  Can someone verify this for me?

Anthony

Two comments on my end:

1)  It's not the ease-in or lack thereof that creates the "visual challenge" of 21" passenger cars  in three rail O-Scale.  It's how much "overhang" gets created on the inside part of the curve that looks unrealistic to some.  An ease-in won't change that.  Once the car gets past the ease-in, you'll have the same overhang challenge.

2) For something like a Big Boy and other very large, articulated steam engines.....I don't think an ease-in will do much for you on O-96.  You'll still wind up on O-96 after the ease-in....and have the same massive overhang.

That said, 96" diameter curves in three rail O-Scale are....wonderful.

Agreed, easements do nothing to eliminate the "overhang" challenge.  However, taking a long piece of equipment from a straight piece of track directly into, for example, an O72 curve can cause tracking (derailing and/or uncoupling) issues that an easement can help prevent.  Plus, when watching the trains from outside the curves (as opposed to looking from the inside), the easements do improve appearance a little bit.

Chuck