I have a 2 stall engine house from MTH I'm trying to get to work with gargraves track with ross switches. I want to keep it at a minimum of o72. What track radius should I use. Any help is appreciated
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Radius? You need a straight shot going into an engine house, you don't want curves right at the entrance.
Start with an 072 turnout then curve back to have two straights into the engine house.
The only Atlas O switch I own is the O72 wye. Mated with the two halves of a O72 curve works well for a two stall.
As John said. You definitely want to keep the track straight entering the engine house. Steamer cabs tend to swing out on curves and can clip the opening. The easiest is to just use Gargraves flex track. Some like to deal with sectional track and not get into cutting and fitting. These are stub tracks I’m guessing. Not familar with the MTH house. Only one end has to fit precisely. The rails will change as you bend it. With fresh new Gargraves the rails should move easily in the ties. You can tap the rails flush with a block of wood and a hammer. Seeing the other end is now uneven. You can trim it good enough with a hacksaw if you don’t have a Dremel.
If you want to deal with just sectional track. You mention you are using Ross Switches. You didn’t mention how much of a run you have from the turnout to the stall doors. With a decent run. You can use a Ross regular switch. The straight leg will run straight into one stall. Ross has what’s called transition curves. It will bring the curved turnout leg of the switch back to parallel with the straight leg. He offers I believe 3.5, 4.0 and 4.5 spacing between the center rails. If this seems doable. Just measure up your doors. Center to center.
I believe your MTH stall calls for 5" spacing but that may be hard to achieve. If the doors are wide enough 1/2" either way may still work.
These are a few possible configurations. The top switch is a Ross O72 and a O72 curve and results in 5 1/2" spacing. The bottom switch is a Ross #4 with a TR445 curve. You can do the same with a Ross #100 and a TR45 but that combination is 5 or 6 inches longer that using the #4. The middle switch is the Atlas O wye.
Foundation still in progress.
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A couple of pieces of Gargraves Flex here and you can have any center-to-center spacing you need for the entrance.
