MTH Realtrax layout help

should not be hard. the shortest pieces are shortest in the picture. If you put all the large pieces down it should all fall in place as per short piece locations. There are not that many pieces. DOTS REPRESENT END OF SECTION!

I've tried to make it work using SCARM but the pieces in the reverse loop don't match up as well as the pieces between the two switches on the bottom of the layout

if it is already laid out why use scarm?

It's not going to join in SCARM unless you increase the joint tolerance. It's doesn't really connect in RR-Track either, but RR-Track lets you join tracks that are close and that's what the photo in the catalog used. As far as I can tell, here's where they go in SCARM.

As far as eyeballing it, it's difficult to distinguish 3.5-4.5 and 5.0-5.5 in the catalog photo unless you zoom in.

@DoubleDAZ posted:

It's not going to join in SCARM unless you increase the joint tolerance. It's doesn't really connect in RR-Track either, but RR-Track lets you join tracks that are close and that's what the photo in the catalog used. As far as I can tell, here's where they go in SCARM.

As far as eyeballing it, it's difficult to distinguish 3.5-4.5 and 5.0-5.5 in the catalog photo unless you zoom in.

Will the layout work? Or will the tracks not align in real life. Thanks for placing the 3.5, 4.25, 5 and 5.5 sections.

There should be enough play in the tracks for things to connect, but I haven’t built it, so I can’t guarantee it. I tried various combinations in both SCARM and RR-Track and couldn’t get everything to join in either program. RR-Track gives you a warning and tells you how big the gap is, then asks if you want to join. If you look closely at the 10” and 5” in the center, you can see where they are slightly misaligned. And if you look at the 3.5” track below that just to the left of the switch, you can see a gap there. Both of those gave a join error in RR-Track. I can’t explain the differences between SCARM and RR-Track other than they both use different default tolerances, .079 vs .05, and RR-Track gives you the option to join anyway.

Thanks Dave for the input. This is a planned expansion of my current layout. It's a 12x6 layout with Lionel Fastrack. I'm considering the use of MTH Realtrax since I have plenty of it from starter sets I had previously purchased. Here is the layout I originally designed in SCARM. I am just finishing the wiring and doing scenery.

Some pics of the current layout

Is the new one going to be added as an “L”?

Yes

I did some reworking of the expansion layout with MTH Realtrax. Seems to work better