I use O36 Fastrack curves on my Christmas layout and place O31 tubular inside them. Plenty of room. My question is: Can I place O31 Fastrack curves inside the O36? Has anyone ever done this? Thanks in advance.
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P,
I found the best way to Engineer the inner most loops on my layouts is to use 031 RealTrax or 027 Conventional Tubular.
PCRR/Dave
Construction of the Bar Top layout, with 031 RealTrax Inner Loop, and 036/048 FasTrack outer loops, with 072 FTCC Switches, to accommodate Tin Plate Trains.
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To answer your question, a plain loop of O-31 FT will not fit inside a plain loop of O-36 FT.
Like Gilly said, you must add a straight section in the middle of the O-36 loop to expand it so the O-31 loop will fit inside.
FT is approximately 3.5" wide. Therefore, the outside dimension of a loop of O-31 FT is 34.5" wide (31" + 1.75" + 1.75"). The inside diameter of a loop of O-36 FT is 32.5" wide (36" - 1.75" - 1.75"), so the O-31 doesn't fit.
You have to add that straight section to allow it to fit, plus you have to consider clearance and overhang issues.
Attached is a photo of an O-31 loop inside an O-36 loop to which a 5" and 1 3/4" straight have been added.
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Richie C.
For this reason I recommend the 031 RealTrax and the 027 Tubular when building inner most loops, they both work out extremely well.
PCRR/Dave
Thanks to all for the quick responses. Pine Creek, I am up to my ears in Fastrack and am building a layout for the grand kids. They each have an RTR set and want to run on the same 4x8. If it was my railroad I would have O27 on the outside and O 31 on the inside which is what I have in my 2003 basement layout. For them, Fastrack it is. Richie C, is that track on a 4 foot wide board? If so, that will work as I have plenty of straights and so many 1.75" I don't know where they came from.
Yes, that's a 4' x 8' plywood sheet.
How long a straight section you insert is up to you, but I wouldn't go much less than 3 of those 1.75" pieces because of possible overhang and clearance issues. I went longer because I wanted to maximize the loop dimension.
The OD of a O-36 loop is 39.5", so you have about 8.5" of straight before you reach the table width. Since you have to insert at least a minimum of a 2.5" of straight to clear the O-31 loop, the straight section is going to have to be between 2.5" and 8.5", with 5.5" being about the "sweet spot".
P,
You will be riding the edge of the platform but you should be able to make it happen, keep your engines medium to small size as your run.
PCRR/Dave
