I would like to see lionel O31 curves on a 36 inch wide table. I want to know if track roadbed will come right to the edge or will it leave a little room? any pics will be great and helpful.. O31 is as large as I can go for the room I have, I have heard to many horror stories about MTH realtrax. and O27 may disappoint me since new track may be hard to come by in future.
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Three foot wide semi hollow door with homosote on it.
This is super K line 031, O Gage track. I have banked the 031 curve see clothes pins.
Leroof posted:This is super K line 031, O Gage track.
That's only 14.14" center rail radius, FasTrack O-31 is 15.5" center rail radius with 4" wide roadbed.
A circle of O-31 FasTrack is 35" in diameter over the outside of the roadbed, so that will leave you with 1/2" between the roadbed and the edge of the table.
Just another option consider: Marx 034 (in 027 rail profile). No, none is being made new, but there is plenty on the market.
Mike, Rob figured out what your fastracks close to the edge would leave!
Yikes!
031 Tubular rail would be at least bankable.
You could always set up a fence or a baracade around the fast tracks or have a restricted speed limit. Best of luck.
Lionel O31 tubular Track on on 78” x 36” door looks like this - note that this isn’t a true circular curve, there is a 1/2 length cut-in inserted in mid-curve
Leroof posted:Mike, Rob figured out what your fastracks close to the edge would leave!
Yikes!
031 Tubular rail would be at least bankable.
You could always set up a fence or a baracade around the fast tracks or have a restricted speed limit. Best of luck.
Check your clearances as you build. Steam cow catchers and cabs, and diesel pilots hang over a lot on a 031 curve. Even worse on 027 (ask me how I know 
)
Leroof's video is a good example.
Here's how it looks in SCARM. Board is 36" wide.
Bob
ADCX Rob posted:That's only 14.14" center rail radius, FasTrack O-31 is 15.5" center rail radius with 4" wide roadbed.
Rob, are you sure the roadbed is 4” wide and not 3.5”? I have RealTrax and it’s 3” wide. I just watched a video comparing the 2 (one on top of the other) and it didn’t look like a full inch difference. Then I saw that Amazon lists the dimensions for a 5” section as 5”x3.5”.
My calculations say center-to-center distance of an oval is 31”. Roadbed adds 3.5” (1.75” on each side) making the overall width 34.5”. This means the roadbed will be .75” from the edge of the table. The track center rail will be 2.5” from the edge arguably leaving enough clearance for a barrier around the outside of the table.
The bottom line is that an O31 oval will fit on a 36” table and will leave a little room. 
RSJB18 posted:Leroof posted:Mike, Rob figured out what your fastracks close to the edge would leave!
Yikes!
031 Tubular rail would be at least bankable.
You could always set up a fence or a baracade around the fast tracks or have a restricted speed limit. Best of luck.
Check your clearances as you build. Steam cow catchers and cabs, and diesel pilots hang over a lot on a 031 curve. Even worse on 027 (ask me how I know
Leroof's video is a good example.
Here's how it looks in SCARM. Board is 36" wide.
rsjb18 is right about the “overhang” , especially Steam Engines! And more especially if your Layout is next to a wall! Your Engine will “HIT” the wall! Of course if you run any kind of articulated Engine, you will definitely hit the wall!!
Believe me I know as well!!
Fredstrains
DoubleDAZ posted:ADCX Rob posted:That's only 14.14" center rail radius, FasTrack O-31 is 15.5" center rail radius with 4" wide roadbed.
Rob, are you sure the roadbed is 4” wide and not 3.5”?
If you need that extra 1/4" on each side of a 36" platform, sure, that will work.
No doubt there will be overhang and I could be wrong, but these are O31 curves, so I just don't see Mike running engines with that much overhang. Obviously, it's something to consider if he does.
My O31 Fastrack reverse-loop:
Looks like 34 ⅜ " diameter.
thanks everyone. looks like i better add a few extra inches to side of benchwork for my turn around loops.
Easy enough to tack on some 1x or 2x extensions. You’d probably be okay, but accidents always happen. Good luck.
I have a 36 inch wide hollow core door layout and use 031 fastrack and have no problems as there is an inch on each side of the oval of track. Please view the attached photos, as I have not felt any need to widen the layout and certainly do not have room to do so.
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