@DoubleDAZ I was re-reading your research. Did you say the o72 wye would or would not work? The one photo appears it does work with short straights? I know I would have to pull up the current straight, but I would have to pull up track regardless on any of these options, if I choose to make the move. I just want to double check, because once I put my backdrop in, changing track will be a major problem. I found an atlas #6074 without the motor, which I have the motor, so it is not an issue.
Yes, I said the O-72 should work, but I don't know if it will fit without relocating the bottom switch. Here are some options, in the first 3 you lose the spurs I was able to add earlier. Let me know which you choose.
This parts list is the same for the first 2 options, only the location of the spur/house changes. The 3rd option just replaces the 4.5" and 5.5" tracks with a 10" track. I didn't add parts lists for the last options because I just threw them in there to round out all the options I see. If you need one I'll be happy to add it.
In this version, I replaced the O-45 switch combo with the O-72 combo. However, I don't know how close to the O-72 half curves the house can be placed for the engines to still clear the doors, so I don't know how close the top right corner of the house will be to the gold oval.
To be safe, in this version, I moved the entire spur/O-72/house over 10" by moving the 10" straight to the right side of the bottom switch.
Then I noticed I could have just removed the 4.5" and 5.5" straights and placed a 10" straight where the 4.5" was. This was the combo wasn't moved quite as far left.
Here I added the top spur to use the O-45 switch, but you'd have to buy another one or just leave it as a single spur.
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The 3rd photo i believe is the one. Nothing changes except taking the o45 i have now, out and adding the #6074 o72 wye (and of course pulling up the straight that is there. I no longer have that top spur switch as I returned it months ago. I do not want to get too creative as I have other buildings coming.
Totally your choice. Don’t forget the half curves, etc.
@DoubleDAZ yes,sir! Appreciate all your help! Check out my weekend update.
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I'm thinking you may have a problem with some engines hitting the sides coming into the engine house. I'd suggest mocking that bit of track up and trying a couple of your engines with the most overhang to see if they make it. This is a similar issue that people have with entry to a turntable off a curve.
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John, I guess you missed this comment in my post. 🤣
"In this version, I replaced the O-45 switch combo with the O-72 combo. However, I don't know how close to the O-72 half curves the house can be placed for the engines to still clear the doors, so I don't know how close the top right corner of the house will be to the gold oval."
Ken, I was reviewing some of your videos and noticed that you appear to have a bit different configuration than I thought. I knew you didn’t include the switch at the top, but it looks like the areas circled in red are what you have and not the version with the extra small straights in my earlier photos. So, it appears that all you have to do is replace the section from the switch to the engine house with the wye and dual house. Does that sound right?
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@DoubleDAZ posted:John, I guess you missed this comment in my post. 🤣
"In this version, I replaced the O-45 switch combo with the O-72 combo. However, I don't know how close to the O-72 half curves the house can be placed for the engines to still clear the doors, so I don't know how close the top right corner of the house will be to the gold oval."
I saw it, but I noticed the same potential issues posted again in succeeding pictures, so I thought I'd make the point again in case it was missed.
@DoubleDAZ yes that is correct.
@DoubleDAZ so does that mean I do or do not need the half curves? My shop has them aside for me waiting for another part from Atlas to come in to control my signal lights.
If you use the O-72 Wye, you definitely need the O-72 half curves. The example in the left image shows what happens without them, the tracks continue outward.
Given that you have the right hand O-45 switch, the right image shows how you could just buy an O-36 curve to use the O-45 switch. That didn't originally work because I thought the spur was closer to the right and the house wouldn't fit. However, if you do that, you limit yourself to engines that work with the O-36 curve. That probably isn't an issue because your engines already work with O-45 curves. If they work with O-45, they work with O-36.
Personally, I'd go with the O-72 Wye simply because you have it, the price of two O-72 half curves can't be that much more than one O-36 curve, and I think it looks better. I just wanted to show you the options.
FWIW, in the drawing, the rear right corner of the house is 3.5" from the gold tracks. No matter which direction the engines run, the overhang will be away from the house toward the outside of the curve, so I don't think you'll have any difficulty placing the house so engines clear the doors going in/out.
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Dave,
Just a reminder: when any equipment goes around a curve, there is an outside AND an inside overhang. Given the location of the enginehouse to the curve here, the greater worry is inside overhang which all depends on the length of the equipment and the size (larger is better to avoid "bumps") of the curve.
Chuck
@DoubleDAZ agreed. Yes, all inexpensive stuff. I got the wye used in great condition for $35 online Not sure how much the halves are, but i cannot imagine more than $10 at my shop, they have the absolute best prices on everything. The issue and pain is pulling up the ballast. Which is funny as I originally did not ballast it and my wife asked me why are you not ballasting it! I should make her pull it up. 😂😂😂😂😂
You aren't the only one who has ballasted and then changed things, so welcome to that club.
Chuck brought up a good point. The end of my enginehouse is up against the wall meaning the enginehouse is too close to my curves for my longest engines. I had no more room to slide the switch and curves farther from the wall, so my only solution is to cut the end off the enginehouse which really won't matter much since you can't see the end up against the wall anyway.
Yes, I worked a couple switches I already owned into my revised track plan and they worked out well.
Chuck/Mark. On the drawing, the upper right corner of the house is 3.5" from the gold inside rail. I seriously doubt any engine/car that works with O36 curves will overhang inside anywhere near that. However, I just found a photo of his actual layout and I see he changed things from the original drawing. I knew he change where the spur is, but I did know he changed the upper curve. That section appears to be quite different and I no long think the house will fit at all. I’m checking it now.
Ken, I think you changed more than I thought and I don't think the 2-stall house is going to fit at all. The image on the left is what I have you down for. However I just looked at an image from one of your videos and I think you also changed the curves in the right side and I'm not sure you didn't change those by the red circles. If the gold tracks are right, then the house is not going to fit. I have an appointment I need to get to, so maybe you can confirm things while I'm gone.
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@DoubleDAZ on the side we are talking about, I did not change anything. The only difference to your original plan was not doing the spur off this straight where the house is (was). I already started removing track.
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FYI the max clearance needed for the MTH Premier BigBoy on 072 is 2 1/2 inches from rail edge out. On the RailKing version it is the engineer's cab that swings out wide.
@DoubleDAZ I believe it will fit see photos. I moved the house to the farthest point back corner and the house is no longer than 24" which gives us 3-4 inches of play, assuming the why is similar size as the o45 which I turned around, I know it bends differently but I cannot believe it will be more than 4 inches encroachment. My untrained brain says this will work.
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Also @DoubleDAZ what may seem different is once I was putting it together my original bridge would not fit (Mikado kept clipping it, no matter how i positioned), so I got a smaller girder bridge to put into the inner loop, but the track pieces are still there from your plan. Again, they only two things missing are the back(right side of layout - after main 4 switch area) spur and the spur running off this o45 switch/straight spur.
@DoubleDAZ I just got confirmation from the dealer that the wye switch is roughly 13" the o45 is a little over 12", so I think there is room. From current 12" switch to door entry it a little over 4" and the house is all the way to the fastest point for loco to pass. It won't be a ton of space, but appears to be 1-2" of play....
Now we wait 😂
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Ken, I owe you a big apology and I'm so sorry. When you asked about the 2-stall house, I pulled up what I thought was the latest version of the design. However, since what you are saying now and what I'm seeing doesn't match the design we've been looking at recently, I looked through my files and found an earlier file where you reduced the size of the table. How the other file got labeled later is beyond me. I should have caught it when I looked at your videos, but I wasn't looking that close to the track.
Anyway, here is the design I think you built, but at this point I'm not even sure of that.
Be that as it may, assuming this is close, I'm sorry to say I don't think there's any way the larger house is going to fit. However, no matter what configuration I try, I can't even get the Wye and 1-stall house to fit where you have it, so something might still be wrong with this version.
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Something is off, because the picture you have with current setup says the single house is up against the inner loop, however it was not. We shall see tomorrow when everything arrives. I will figure it out or put it back together and sell the new stuff. All good either way. The layout is 80x80. Not sure if that helps your research.
Also, does the o45 and o36 work if they wye does not?
Ken, the baseboard is 80x80, so that much is accurate. I just recorded your "Track Update Saturday" video, so I could watch it 1 frame at a time. It looks like the tracks are the same, so I can't explain why the house appears to fit better on the layout than it does in SCARM. It is 23.6" long in SCARM (the same as the 2-stall) and you've said yours is less than 24".
As far as the O-36/O-45 combo goes, it looks like that won't work either.
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@DoubleDAZ well, I will update you tomorrow as it all arrives. Honestly, it is not a bad exercise or issue anyways. It has looked weird with that switch anyways. It was a waste for me to put it in if I was not going to do the spur per your design. So, even if the house does not fit, it would just mean more city and more Downtown Deco's to build, lol! I was originally going to do a train station there but dropping back to punt is par for the course in modeling. All good! Appreciate all that you do! No worries at all.
Thank you Ken, that’s very understanding. I don’t know how the version names got messed up. I move old versions to a Misc folder and just keep the current one in the main folder.
Hi Ken, I have just been catching up and I'm not home to try it on my computer. But what if you put in a crossover from the outter loop right after the last curved section? It might move you back far enough to make things work.
Just a thought from outside the box!
@mike g. I literally just got off the phone asking my shop of they had o45 half piece to move that back a bit. @DoubleDAZ what about Mike's thought? The house just arrived, so I will unpack and put on layout to see where we are. Appreciate all the help, teammates! 💪🏾
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@DoubleDAZ also could you see what other configurations for the o45 work? I can get o45 1/4 curves too. I am just thinking out the box too. Let's say we go from the building to the switch on the inner oval - is that possible and what would it look like. We know the space in the oval, how do we make the house work, in other words. Attached are the dimensions. If the answer is nothing or no, that is okay,just thinking can we reverse engineer it into the space. The space is big enough and none of the city is planned or done, so without touching much of the inner loop can we make it work. What does that look like?
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Ken,
I don't see O-45 1/2 tracks in the Atlas library, just 1/4 tracks.
Be that as it may, moving the crossover would result in a bit less distance between the ovals, but you can't move the crossover because the ovals are on 2 different grades.
Unfortunately, it turns out the MTH house is bigger than the Proses house you showed me and the dimensions I got off their site. That means the O-72 Wye configuration doesn't work as designed. However, given the new dimensions, I'm looking at combinations of O-45 1/4 tracks to tilt the spur to the left along with different tracks for both the O-72 Wye and the O-45 switch. The best bet appears to be the O-45 switch because only one curve has to be dealt with. Give me some time and I'll post what I come up with, if anything. Either way, I'll let you know.
@DoubleDAZ tyvm!
@DoubleDAZ also, it is okay if the Proses house is the answer too. I did realize after I got the MTH that it was bigger, my mistake. I was honestly enamored with the Pennsylvania railroad wording as my layout is a pennsy themed
@DoubleDAZ wye just arrived
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@DoubleDAZ just some pics of wye and o72 half's connected. Removed 1 o45 but I know it needs to be 2 at a time removed, I believe. What if we removed another and went to the switch with 2 o36 or changed the switch to o36 and did o36 curves to the wye, etc....Just throwing stuff out there.