... a reasonably long life (d) is scenery going to take a substantial or minimal part (e) are the baseboards going to be rectangular or not Take for example (d). If you don't fancy much scenery, then your plan has the advantage of a lot of railway which can fill rectangular baseboards, whereas Pau's plan has a large unfilled area down the bottom, which either needs scenery, or a curved baseboard to get rid off. Take (c). If it's just a get-started plan I'd simplify it as much as possible, although still leave enough in it to satisfy you. Otherwise get as much variety in as you can without cramming it too much. cheers Nigel posted: 9 Mar 2010 18:04 from: Paul Boyd Hi Nigel: If the two top left sidings are the loco roads as you suggest, I'd suggest putting the platform and station building at the top rather than in the middle; this would give the bottom sidings room to breath, in fact as your plan stands there isn't much room ...

... rail end to the transverse centre line of the nearest check chair. In each case, the check chair C/L to check rail end measurement exceeds the length of flaring by between 4" and 8.75" (that 4" difference I find bit suspect), so I think it's safe to deduce from this that in all cases the flaring starts beyond the point at which it is held in the nearest check chair, and that consequently, as Andrew has noted, there are no 'flare chairs' – that must have simplified upkeep of the chair inventory. In addition, we took measurements of the pitch between the centres of each chair in the formation. From this it's possible to calculate the length of the check rails. Mike is correct: they are different, and this is primarily due to the fact that the main road check rail is held by only 5 check chairs, whilst the diverging road check rail is held by 6. Since the sleepers are all pitched about 3' apart in the area of the check rails this should mean ...

... posted: 13 Mar 2008 20:47 from: Martin Wynne Dear all, The latest version of the popular layout planning software DRail has changed its name to AnyRail for the English language version: http://www.anyrail.com It's free for small layouts and so fast and easy to use you might like to try it as an alternative to hand sketching when trying out layout ideas. You could then capture the screen and have it as a picture shape in Templot as a guide for your detailed design. I'm currently working on a simplified "diagram mode" in Templot which will display the templates in a style similar to AnyRail with a simple coloured infill between the rails: deffynog.png This will be more useful than the normal style for displays, signal box diagrams, control panels, wiring diagrams and the like. regards, Martin. Parts of Templot Club may not function unless you enable JavaScript (also called Active Scripting) in your browser. Templot Club> Forums> Templot talk> AnyRail about Templot Club Templot Companion- User Guide- A-Z Index ...

... all the controls and operate all the turnout motors, given that you will need individual separate driver circuits to convert each logic output to a drive each turnout motor. Clearly you're already allowing for the cost of those, given that they would remote controlled anyway. However, it will be far easier and cheaper to use CMRI in that case, and programming the operation in the very simple computer language "Basic", once mastered (not to difficult), will be far easier than learning the PLA language. You could even simplify things further by using one of the commercial programs that has track diagrms on screen and you can just visually click on the turnouts to set up the route you want. Andy posted: 22 Nov 2007 22:49 from: Jim Guthrie renluethi wrote: Hello, I have built many turnouts with the help of Templot (and Martin of course) for my model railroad layout currently under construction. It includes a main station with a shunting yard, both totaling 42 turnouts and approx. 102 routes. I would like to ...

... the user uses the* and/ keys, so understanding that is key. The F7 Snap function comes later as a "useful" alternative. However, it can be mentioned so that people understand why a template suddenly latches itself onto another. Hmm- what was that about not winning? Cheers posted: 8 Mar 2010 19:15 from: Gordon S Hi Paul As you say, we're all different and I'm always willing to learn. Can you tell me what's irritating about Snap to Join on F7? It just simplifies the whole process for me. I just move a piece of track close to the adjacent piece of track and it automatically joins and aligns with the next piece via the peg. Having fixed one end I then use F3 and F6 to take it where I want to go. Nothing could be easier.... Clearly I may be deluding myself. Am I creating a problem? posted: 8 Mar 2010 20:30 from: Paul Boyd Hi Gordon No, you're neither creating a problem nor deluding yourself! ...

... . 2. CLM= Centre Line Measure= most US and UK prototypes: clm_angle_diagram.png Measurements are made along an imaginary centre-line between the vee rails, and at right angles to that centre-line. Neither measurement is along the rail. It's easy to do on the ground with gauging tools which fit across the rails, but more difficult on a drawing board. CLM unit angles are used because the rules-of-thumb formulae which are used by the p.w. gang when setting out pointwork on the ground are simplified, and produce closer approximations to the true mathematical result. Nowadays with everything done on computers there is no real need for unit angles, we could work directly in degrees or radians. But tradition dies hard and the unit numbers are brain-friendly and easy to remember. regards, Martin. posted: 14 Feb 2013 07:50 from: CoBo Thank you Martin Parts of Templot Club may not function unless you enable JavaScript (also called Active Scripting) in your browser. Templot Club> Forums> Baffled beginners> ...

... topic: 2084 Dale Junction revised again posted: 21 Oct 2012 13:23 from: PeterD For reference: Original topic: topic 1836. The attached plan is very loosely based upon the Bath Green park in the station area. I have somewhat simplified the layout to reduce the dimensions but it should provide the essence of the operation. Intended operation Down passenger trains run into the Arrival Platform from the main line. Branch passenger trains use a branch platform or can be routed to the Arrival Platform across the up/down main running lines at the station throat. When passenger trains arrive, the locomotive is de-coupled and runs round the train to reach the engine shed area for servicing and turning as necessary. The Station Pilot takes the coaches to Carriage Sidings 1 or 2 releasing the platform. The Station Pilot assembles Up Trains from carriages in the sidings. The train locomotive then replaces the Station Pilot having been prepared at the engine shed area.Up passenger trains can be routed to either the main line or the branch line. Branch passenger trains are ...

... from: Martin Wynne Hi Mark, I have now re-arranged the output menu items to make clear which settings apply to the printer only: 2_161010_110000000.gif Will be in the next update. Thanks for reporting this. regards, Martin. posted: 18 Jul 2012 05:30 from: Mark C Martin, This seems fine for the time being and I agree that ultimately there should be separate dialogs for Printing and for File Export. Each dialog would be devoted to settings that are relevant to only that function. This would simplify the Output menu where the first two choices could be links to the Printer and File Export dialogs. Any other choices in the Output menu would be for settings common to both printing and file export. As I see it, page orientation is something that would be common to both! Thus, I think page orientation should be shown in the Output menu and not in either the Printing or File Export dialogs. Then the page outlines choices in the Trackpad menu could be limited to just one check/no-check " ...

... Hi Arthur, You would need very much higher voltages to detect any leakage. Bare wire is fine for droppers at 18 volts, and much easier to hide in the ballast. If there was going to be a problem, it would be much more likely to occur where the rails contact the ballast, or are buried in roadways, goods yards, etc., and no such problems have ever been noticed. regards, Martin. posted: 11 Apr 2012 14:22 from: LSWRArt Great! That is one task simplified :-) All the best, Arthur posted: 11 Apr 2012 14:54 from: Roger Henry If you are using the tradional white-glue to secure your ballast you might be surprised at just how low the insulation resistance of a track section is. I did some experiments a couple of years ago and, although I don't have the figures to hand, I seem to recall that even a yard or so of track was down to about 20,000 Ohms rail-to-rail. As I operate ...

... topic: 1676 Check rails etc. posted: 4 Nov 2011 13:06 from: Raymond Now that I have mastered (not that it is complicated) this useful addition I have to say that it simplifies and speeds up the process a great deal with the added bonus that far fewer partial templates are required for complex formations. It was particularly useful in producing the 1:4 outside slip. Thank you and well done Martin. Regards Raymond posted: 12 Nov 2011 09:05 from: Martin Wynne Raymond wrote: Thank you and well done Martin. Thanks Raymond. An easier means of adjusting check rails was long overdue. It has beaten me twice in the past, so I'm quite pleased that it seems to be ok now. regards, Martin. posted: 11 Dec 2011 16:44 from: Paul Boyd Hi Martin Just passing through... I think I've found a bug on the check rail adjustments(Ctrl-Shift-F9) that only applies to irregular diamonds, and only on DS2. Basically, if ...