... topic: 3474 How to join/align 2 templates? posted: 3 Aug 2019 02:19 from: drrsenior I am sure this is very basic but I have been unable to find the answer.I am designing a shed layout and have been making decent progress. Have battled through divergent turnouts with adequate success. Where I am struggling is linking adjacent tracks with a turnout as a simple operation. Attached is a file showing a simple example of what I mean. (Deliberately so there is no easy drop in curve) I have say 2 shed roads which are fixed, lengthen one of the roads and insert a turnout. What is the best way to now link the other road to the turnout? To date I have had to put plain track on either end of the gap and then fiddle around with length and radius until they meet neatly: I presume there is a better way? Attachment: attach_2865_3474_linking_question .box 161 posted: 3 Aug 2019 10:28 from: Tom Allen i'm a pretty new beginner myself so i doubt my answer is ...

... e.g. steps, twists, gauge narrowing, etc.) on one siding to see how well stock copes with substandard track? And well done on getting the blocked timbers on the crossovers – that's a trick I haven't managed yet. Cheers Rod posted: 21 May 2009 10:00 from: Andy G And well done on getting the blocked timbers on the crossovers – that's a trick I haven't managed yet. Rod, I could be wrong in understanding what you are meaning here. If you are referring to the timbers aligning through the cross overs please be aware that this did not always occur. The important fact was the special chairs at the crossing. These had to be positioned at specific spacings from the crossing nose and the timber locations were therefore determined. The spacings are 2'6" or 10mm in P4 and as Templot places them by default. Thus you should not be shoving the timbers along the turnout at the crossing. What you may need to do is shorten or lengthen them. There are plenty of examples of nearly aligned timbers meeting ...

... (which I should have done in the first place): 2_161247_070000000.jpg At A I think I can see the top corner of a fishplate. If it was bolted tight it would be flush with the rail head. Which suggests that the bolts in the closure rail are quite loose (and maybe tight in the switch rail?). Here's a drawing of BH fishplates: 2_161306_210000000.png It's clear that if the bolts are not tight, not only can the rail move sideways as intended, but it's also not held firm in vertical alignment. So you wouldn't want to slack the bolts by more than a fraction. At one time I was convinced that there must be some detail of these loose-heel joints that I was missing. A spring washer under the nut perhaps? Over the years I've searched many times for a proper explanation. If they were used only in sidings and yards simply leaving the bolts a bit loose is a reasonable solution. But these switches were used in fast main lines -- the GWR didn't introduce flexible switches until the 1930s ...

... gaining in popularity over inkjets. A possible solution is to make sure the paper is bone dry before use, for example by storing it near a radiator or in an airing cupboard. You could even try heating it before use, although it may distort afterwards as it returns to room conditions. Also, using thicker paper seems to help. I always print templates on 160gsm paper, which is almost a thin card. Apart from being more stable the trimmed pages are thick enough to be butted together like tiles, which makes aligning them much easier. But I don't know what thickness your printer would accept. regards, Martin. posted: 1 Mar 2009 14:25 from: Ashley I have this problem recently too. This is how I got around it. I found that I needed to start by laying the templates out from top to bottom, and right to left. So for me G1 was my first extreme right hand side template. Followed by the subsequent numbers. I laid the first template down, pinned it to some kappa board ...

... easy to overdo the angle, but you can flatten it back by squeezing the rail in flat pliers. For a simple way of making a precise bend, see: topic 492 3. Make sure the section of rail between the set and the next mark is dead straight. Don't inadvertently curve it. 4. Beyond the second mark you can gently curve the rail between your fingers. 5. Lay the rail on the template. If it is a Templot template the two marks will be on the template. You can align the rail over the template and check that the set angle matches the template. Time spent at this stage checking and adjusting will be well repaid later. If you have stuck the timbers on the template, it is worth printing off another one to check the rail against more easily. 6. Fix the straight stock rail first, it is just plain rail. 7. Start fixing the curved stock rail at the switch front, gauging from the straight stock rail in the usual way. Don't go beyond the set yet ...

... of the superior trackwork, so it has to be part of the solution. However, "merely" a graphical representation and exchange doesn't really satisfy on two levels- It doesn't allow the joining of elements correctly inside the program- that is the object being entered into XTrackCAD should have end points that are correct as to position, angle and radius and center of curvature (the later two being determined by the piece of track entering into the end point). That way a piece of track joined to that trackwork will correctly align and have a compatible easement- it would be too bad to have a fantastic bit of hand-built Templot let down by a poor attachment to the mundane track work elsewhere. One would not be able to simulate even to a simplistic extent a train running across the new Templot trackwork (including all its switching possibilities). This is a mode that our users exploit to investigate the operability of an entire layout before committing to buy/build. Now the internals from an operating point of view only matter from a XTrackCAD ...

... , but could probably change either of the plain tracks or the left hand point slightly if this would help to solve the problem. Any suggestions, or a link to a previous tutorial or discussion on this subject will be gratefully received. Thanks Arthur Attachment: attach_1287_1756_outside_slip.box 244 posted: 31 Dec 2011 16:58 from: Martin Wynne LSWRArt wrote: Any suggestions, or a link to a previous tutorial or discussion on this subject will be gratefully received. Hi Arthur, An outside slip is essentially two overlapping turnouts. The basic alignments can be arrived at quite quickly. Here's a bit of Jing video showing how to do that: (give it a moment or two to download) Getting a known crossing angle in the diamond requires some experimenting with the V-crossing angles and radius in the starting turnout. The V-crossings in the slip road must clear the other crossings with enough space for all the wing and check rails. TDV now makes it easy to create the diamond if you split off the exit tracks. regards, Martin. posted ...

... from: Martin Wynne CoBo wrote: If I draw a plan which has two pieces of plain track crossing over each other forming an 'x', can Templot automatically convert the crossing point into some form of diamond crossing Hi Mike, Yes. Start with the two lengths of curved plain track crossing over each other, or one curved and one straight length. One should be a background template and the other should be the control template. Click on the background template. On its pop-up menu, click the peg/align tools> make diamond-crossing at intersection menu item. Follow the instructions and wait a moment while Templot does the calculations. You will then need to split the underlying original background template and shorten each half back accordingly. The method won't work for transition curves*, it is for straights and fixed-radius curves only. Also it is very easy when testing to have the tracks crossing at too short an angle. Templot can't produce crossings shorter than 1: 1.5 RAM( i.e. not more than 33.7 degrees) ...

... centers coming into the fiddle yard (to the right) are 83.62mm, and ideally the exit on the left would be standard track centers. Any help, as usual, much appreciated. Attachment: attach_938_1281_mws_fiddle_yard_10 _11_08_1415_38.box 268 posted: 8 Nov 2010 16:59 from: Robert Preston Hi, I don't know if the attached is what you have in mind. I put fixed-radius curves on fiddle road #1 and up main. Extended them, curved them to about 6m, so they nearly touch and then did peg align make transition. I then extended each end of the transition curve to meet fiddle and main and deleted the temporary fixed rad curves. Repeat for fiddle #2 and down main. Robert Preston Attachment: attach_939_1281_mws_fiddle_yard_10 _11_08_1604_00RP.box 239 posted: 8 Nov 2010 17:13 from: Martin Wynne richard_t wrote: I wondered if there is a simple-ish way, of converting a slew to a set of transition curves. My attempts have been a bit rubbish so far. The reason for the conversion is that I need to put ...

... topic: 2609 Bug in generating a transition? posted: 7 Jan 2015 23:16 from: Chris Copplestone Hi Martin, The attached screenshot shows the problem. I'm linking a siding to the first turnout of a tandem using the standard procedure with just geometry> track centre-lines only for generating a transition. However after clicking peg/ align tools> make transition curve from current template> try right-hand first, although I get the required transition, I also get, as well as the centre-line, the MS running rail? Clicking geometry shows that the template is now normal although there is no timbering or a TS running rail?. When I open the omit rails and joint marks... menu and tick to get the TS running rail, it is out of gauge? Note that I have tidied up the template by lengthening it to join it to the siding and shortening it to just join the turnout. Is this a bug or am I doing something not allowed? Regards Chris Attachment: attach_2034_2609_trackpad_screensh ot_2015_01_07_2327_55.png 374 ...