Revised 4x8 plan Finalized with no bending

If those spur pieces are made up of 10" straights, you won't be able to fit anything on the back 2 spurs.  Most freight cars are 11" long, and unless you get a Dockside switcher, most locomotives are 12-13"+ in length.  My rule of thumb has been any spur that has to hold one locomotive and freight car should be at least 30" long.  Here is another idea with more action for 4x8 double loop I designed with Atlas track.  I made a single loop of this with FasTrack at one point that fit under a standard twin bed for my son.

FWIW, I completely agree with Sinclair. His design lets you fit 11 or so cars on the spurs with ready access whereas yours is limited to 4 cars (maybe) on that longest spur and 2 on each of the others if you want to spend all your time moving cars around 1 at a time with a little switch engine.

Thank you both for the suggestions.  I really like the Atlas/Fastrack plan.  Attached is a revised plan reflecting your suggestions. Since I have all plastic tie Gargraves, I updated the track selections too.

That is a much better plan, and I think you will be happier with it.  You now have 3 industrial spurs to work with, or two and one for a passenger station, like I did on mine.

Now that I have corrected to the right Ross switch, the attached V2 layout is almost final.  I do need help from to explain why the lower corners of the outer loop is not symmetrical with the upper corners.  I would have thought I could use standard pieces instead of flex.  Although I have use flex in N scale, I never tried Gargraves flex and I am a little intimidated by it hearing all the stories of bent pieces.  Anyway, here is the plan for you assistance and comments.

RichC posted:

...  I do need help from to explain why the lower corners of the outer loop is not symmetrical with the upper corners.  I would have thought I could use standard pieces instead of flex ...

It's not symmetrical because those crossovers (unmodified) don't fit perfectly with that combination of fixed radius end curves.

Thanks Ace.  Since you are more skilled than me, is there a combination that would work, or am I over reacting to bending Gargraves flex?

RichC posted:

Thanks Ace.  Since you are more skilled than me, is there a combination that would work, or am I over reacting to bending Gargraves flex?

Can you summarize, what track do you actually have, which you want to use? If you want a plan with easy construction using standard uncut pieces, you might want to keep your options open on choice of track system. Sinclair showed you a good track plan with Atlas sectional track that uses all standard pieces.

I have complete circles of O-42 and O-32 Gargraves plastic ties.  I have the switches as shown, and tons of O tubular.

Rich, if you look at where the straight sections of the outer oval begin and end, you'll see that the top begins further to the left and ends sooner on the right than the bottom. This is because of how the crossover turnouts line up.

If you used O42 sectional curves instead of flex track, you'd end up with small gaps in the upper right and lower left. You could then cut pieces to fit those gaps a lot easier than bending flex to fit the larger gaps and your curves will be symmetrical. Unlike other brands, GarGraves doesn't make the small fitter pieces to make this work.

Unfortunately, the curves will also be closer to the edges. One way to deal with that is to add a 1"-2" border around the layout.

I also compared your flex tracks and it looks to me like the one on the left is close to O42 while the one on the right is close to O32. This is because the one on the right has to be bent more to fit the tighter loop.

Thank you Dave.  Looks better than mine.  I tried adjusting on my SCARM to match yours; however, trying to fit the small pieces in via flex just isn't happening.  It appears just a tad off horizontally for it to mate.  Having never work with this track, not sure if it has the give the old tubular does.

This is a minor rework of Dave's last plan which eliminates the need for cut pieces. There are three small gaps which can probably be fudged fairly easily. The spurs can be rearranged as you wish. The one Lionel switch in the inner oval happens to fit a 10"+ space that would otherwise require a cut GarGraves piece.

Outstanding, many thanks to You and Dave.

Nice job Ace. I don't know enough about GarGraves to know how much 'give' it has.

Rich, just FYI, you wouldn't fill only the small gap with flex. You'd delete the straight track next to it too and fill the larger space with a cut piece of flex.

Thanks once Ace and Dave.  I am going to get some flex here shortly and give it a go.  At least I can see the joints a whole lot more than the n scale ones

Since I saw the different lengths between wood and plastic tie, I took some of what Ace produced and made everything work without bending any flex.  Woohoo!!!