... and gets the rivets exactly under the middle of the rail, which makes it a lot easier to fit the cosmetic chairs later. The timbers can then be peeled off for punching or jig drilling, or using a mini-drill they could be drilled directly through the tracing paper. You then print a normal template for construction, of course, and having fixed the riveted timbers in place on it, the tracing paper version (or a fresh one) can be laid over the rivets to check for any riveting or timber alignment errors before adding the rails. Templot lets you set the printed line thicknesses to suit your printer. For precision marking like this it's probably best to set thinner lines than usual, as in the above print. That's at output> line thickness> menu options. Notice also that when you print the rails as centre-lines, Templot makes the timber centre-lines solid instead of the usual dashed centre-lines. n.b. for the greatest accuracy, do a separate printer calibration for the tracing paper. regards, ...

... year. I thought it looked a much better design than we used to have in Britain and wonder why it wasn't the way we did things here. Hi Julian, Some pre-grouping track used very close joint sleepers. The problem then with chaired bullhead track is that if you place the chairs so close to the joint, there isn't room between them for a 4-bolt fishplate, and shorter 2-bolt fishplates must be used. Experience was that 4-bolt fishplates are so much better at keeping the rails aligned and level that the joints required less maintenance, even with the joint sleepers further apart. Wider joint chairs are used on the end sleepers, so that the rail is supported as close to the joint as possible. (4mm joint chairs are now available from C&L.) Flat-bottom track is different, in that fishplates can be fitted over some types of rail fixings, rather than needing to be between them as for chaired bullhead. cheers, Martin. posted: 23 Jul 2020 08:11 from ...

... topic: 3597 Dimensions posted: 18 Jan 2020 11:49 from: Martin Hulse Hi. I'm a newbie so I have a very basic question. What do the 5 dimensions in the info box for a piece of straight track control& what datum do they measure from? I had to set Y=-60mm to get a piece of strsight track to align it's inside rail on the X axis. Martin Hulse See attached Attachment: attach_2977_3597_tmplt1.jpg 301 posted: 18 Jan 2020 13:52 from: Martin Wynne Hi Martin, Welcome to Templot Club. Wow. That dialog is intended for experienced Templot users, and I suspect there are many of those who have never used it, or even seen it. To set a template at a specified position on the grid, use the peg and notch functions. First set the notch to the required position, and then shift the template onto it. I have made you a bit of scruff video showing how to do that (click the video to restart after each pause): http: ...

... as it was only relatively recently that you brought in the acute crossing three marks. Improving the clarity of the NLS map when making a trackplan, for example, is I'm sure a much more widely useful upgrade. Just to be clear, I'm not asking this because of the look of the thing, but because of actual running. In P4 there is at least in theory an issue of the wheels going the wrong way at a less flat angle than S4 and the prototype, and good running seems to rely on perfect alignment but with a risky short length where the wheelset is unchecked. I hope it won't seem I'm complaining!- Not at all, it is just a point of interest I hope you'll agree! Cheers Julian posted: 9 Dec 2020 18:20 from: Paul Boyd Hi Julian Dave Bradwell is a modeller I respect, but I'm puzzled as to why he thinks a crisp bend would stop the wheels going the wrong way. The check rails do that, and there is no unchecked length! This is really the only ...

... topic: 3823 maps- feedback wanted posted: 24 Nov 2020 21:31 from: Martin Wynne I mentioned earlier that it is now possible to load the NLS historic 25"/mile maps as tiled maps. Which is great news -- it means maps of any size can be easily captured at maximum zoom without any restriction caused by your screen size, or need to align multiple captures. It will be in the next program update. I have since discovered that the highest zoom level available as original tiles is level 18 for the 25" maps. The higher zoom levels available on the NLS web site are actually implemented by upscaling the image in the browser. This means of course that capturing higher levels than 18 doesn't get you any more detail, the same level of detail is simply being zoomed larger. Most browsers use a resampling image upscaler to provide a smoother result than a simple stretch of each pixel. Such resampling isn't available in Templot when zooming background shapes on the trackpad, because at the high zoom levels we normally need ...

... splitting into two. Or with one much longer road but each additional road getting progressively shorter? That means laying out the turnouts in a string along the inner or outer road. If the string configuration is laid along the running line, it has an advantage for model control in that to select a road only one turnout needs to be reversed, the rest being reset normal. So a simple rotary switch is sufficient. For a tree configuration a logic matrix of some sort is needed. Next is to lay out the siding alignments with sufficient spacing for running clearance, and for a fiddle yard with additional clearance for handling the rolling stock. 2_080850_260000000.png You have indicated a string design, so I continued with that. Create a branch track on each turnout, convert it to a simple link to the next road. Check the resulting radius. If ok insert the next turnout in it and repeat, otherwise go back and use a longer crossing angle on the previous turnout. You started with a B-8 generic. I kept the generic crossings, ...

... Dutch equivalent of the UK OS Maps, the larger the scale the better for getting things right. If you look at my other thread running on here Martin has copied a map from the NLS (National Library of Scotland) to a .bgs file that can then be copied to Templot and set to whatever scale and gauge you want. I've just been tinkering with the above plan over the last day or so and have got the basics laid out, it's a case of a bit of timber shoving and a few re-alignments. I'll post a box file of it on here later to show you the rough copy. Most of it has been done using the "make mirror on peg" function, "adjust to length", "curve" and "size" for turnouts. In my case the original Frank Dyer plan(drawn in about 1978) would not transfer directly to templot as Frank used "train set" geometry for the pointwork and some would end up very short radius points. I think when I built the layout in ...

... your work. 3. go back to 1. and adjust it again to make a new piece of work. I have tried over and over again for more than 20 years to explain what seems to me to be these very simple and obvious concepts, but it's clear that I just can't do it. I will have one more go: A "template" consists of 3 separate components: 1. a specification. The track gauge, model scale, radius, angles, dimensions, option settings, the position and alignment. All the template design settings and locations that are entered, changed, and adjusted by the user. The current state of all these settings is collectively called the control template. A record of all these settings is called a stored template. These records are held in the storage box, one for each template. The full collection of these records can be saved to a BOX file. 2. a build. This is a big list of X,Y co-ordinate dimensions indicating the current position of every part ...

... Jim Guthrie wrote: Maybe in the next version of Templot you could include a guaranteed Lottery number generator to pay for building these big layouts, and for the buildings needed to house them. Hi Jim, Roy, If I had a means to predict the lottery numbers, I doubt I would be sitting here writing this. Don't forget it's easy to shrink the length of a map in Templot, and you can go a long way without making it unbuildable. It just requires a rotation first so that the tracks are mostly aligned horizontal (or vertical) to preserve the track gauge and spacings approximately, when shrunk lengthwise. You can also use the wrap functions to curve a long straight map around the walls of a room. Here I shrunk Roy's map lengthwise to fit in 24ft to the road bridge: 2_071444_320000000.png And then planning over it, even after shrinking this double junction it is still using B-7.5 and B-8 turnouts, and a 1:6 diamond-crossing (in 00-SF). All entirely reasonable for a ...

... when both roads are used equally? Hi Julian, Your turnout will be fine. You are looking for prototype information which doesn't exist. The only way to model that turnout exactly would be to go and measure the position of each timber. On most railways, centralized timbering is the norm with the equalized-incremental timbering style. Ends-in-line is the norm with the square-on timbering style. Templot sets these for you when you change the style. In practice, although plain track sleepers are usually neatly aligned, in turnouts (especially in yards and sidings) the timber ends can sometimes be all over the place. Templot has a randomizing function to create that, real> timbering> timbering data... 2_050721_060000000.png Try setting the end-randomizing to 3 or 4 inches. Then hold down the F12 key to watch the timbers dance. You can change the settings from a subtle variation to full narrow-gauge crazy track. (Changing the timbering style clears the randomizing settings.) Note that if you use this function ...