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TEMPLOT 3D PLUG TRACK - To get up to speed with this experimental project click here.   To watch an introductory video click here.   See the User Guide at Bexhill West.

  • The Plug Track functions are experimental and still being developed. Some of the earlier pages of this topic are now out-of-date.

    For an updated overview of this project see this topic.   For some practical modelling aspects of using Plug Track see Building 3D Track.

    The assumption is that you have your own machines on which to experiment, or helpful friends with machines. Please do not send Templot files to commercial laser cutting or 3D printing firms while this project is still experimental, because the results are unpredictable and possibly wasteful.

    Some pages of this and other topics include contributions from members who are creating and posting their own CAD designs for 3D printing and laser-cutting. Do not confuse them with Templot's own exported CAD files. All files derived from Templot are © Martin Wynne.
  • The Plug Track functions are experimental and still being developed.

    For an updated overview of this project see this topic.   For some practical modelling aspects of using Plug Track see Building 3D Track.

    The assumption is that you have your own machines on which to experiment, or helpful friends with machines. Please do not send Templot files to commercial laser cutting or 3D printing firms while this project is still experimental, because the results are unpredictable and possibly wasteful.

    Some pages of this and other topics include contributions from members who are creating and posting their own CAD designs for 3D printing and laser-cutting. Do not confuse them with Templot's own exported CAD files. All files derived from Templot are © Martin Wynne.

My First Station Design

Quick reply >
Hi all,
I am new to Finescale and I am new to Templot.
I decided to try it for my future new layout, a 260 by 175 mm 2mm scale layout, with a small terminus station, a loc shed and a DMU shed at +25 cm, and then a double track with goes down to 0 cm with a curvy double track.
At level 0 there will be a hidden station and a reverse loop.

I attach here my first station plan, I'd like to have comments both on the way I used Templot and on the plan itself.
Any comment is really welcome, so that I can improve the design.
 

Attachments

  • main-station-260x175.box
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@riccardo palombella

Hi Riccardo,

Welcome to Templot Club. :)

That's excellent progress for a first use of Templot! Thanks for posting it.

However, I'm wondering if you have made a fundamental mistake. Are you a member of the 2mm Scale Association?

http://www.2mm.org.uk

They are very active in promoting 2mm/ft scale modelling. But for the S2 standards they recommend a minimum radius of 460 mm and ideally no less than 600 mm. Your curves on the right of your plan are down to 310 mm on the inside, which is a long way below the recommended minimum. It's possible to get scale models round sharp curves by applying some gauge-widening during construction, but your 310 mm would be at the extreme end of such methods. Do you have space to increase the radius? If not you might do better to build in N gauge rather than S2.

The 2mm Association produced an excellent handbook on modelling trackwork, although I fear it may now be out of print. You could probably find a second-hand copy:

http://www.2mm.org.uk/products/nms/index.html

Looking at your track plan, there is a wiggle in the curves here, which does not look very prototypical:

riccardo1.png



By using a longer turnout on the right I was able to smooth the curves, like this:

riccardo2.png


I can post the .box file for this if you would like it?

Thanks again for sharing your plan.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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message ref: 5885
Hi all,
I am new to Finescale and I am new to Templot.
I decided to try it for my future new layout, a 260 by 175 mm 2mm scale layout, with a small terminus station, a loc shed and a DMU shed at +25 cm, and then a double track with goes down to 0 cm with a curvy double track.
At level 0 there will be a hidden station and a reverse loop.

I attach here my first station plan, I'd like to have comments both on the way I used Templot and on the plan itself.
Any comment is really welcome, so that I can improve the design.
Hi Ric,

Your plan looks like an extended version of Cyril Freezer's Minories track plan, which would have to be one of the most famous British model railway track plans of all time, you can not go far wrong with such a plan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minories_(model_railway)

Many layouts have been built over the years to Cyril's plan, some as bare bones (as it was originally designed) while many others added features such as the MPD, carriage sidings or basic good facilities. The time period modeled for these layouts varied greatly from steam pre-grouping to modern day DMU operation.

If you are unfamiliar with the Minories plan it may be of interest to you to see how the pointwork in the station throat was handled by those the built versions of the layout, your version is more complex than was generally used.

Regards,
Pierre
 
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message ref: 5886
@riccardo palombella

Hi Riccardo,

Welcome to Templot Club. :)

That's excellent progress for a first use of Templot! Thanks for posting it.

However, I'm wondering if you have made a fundamental mistake. Are you a member of the 2mm Scale Association?

http://www.2mm.org.uk

They are very active in promoting 2mm/ft scale modelling. But for the S2 standards they recommend a minimum radius of 460 mm and ideally no less than 600 mm. Your curves on the right of your plan are down to 310 mm on the inside, which is a long way below the recommended minimum. It's possible to get scale models round sharp curves by applying some gauge-widening during construction, but your 310 mm would be at the extreme end of such methods. Do you have space to increase the radius? If not you might do better to build in N gauge rather than S2.

The 2mm Association produced an excellent handbook on modelling trackwork, although I fear it may now be out of print. You could probably find a second-hand copy:

http://www.2mm.org.uk/products/nms/index.html

Looking at your track plan, there is a wiggle in the curves here, which does not look very prototypical:

View attachment 5036


By using a longer turnout on the right I was able to smooth the curves, like this:

View attachment 5035

I can post the .box file for this if you would like it?

Thanks again for sharing your plan.

cheers,

Martin.
Hello Martin,
thank you a lot for your feedback.
No need to post the .box file I'll copy your change from the picture, good opportunity to practice templot!
I am 2mm SA member since few weeks, and I am familiarizing with tracks and points scratch building, I am moving the very first steps in this fascinating finescale world. I moved from Italy few months ago and I was using Peco Code 55 before discovering the wonder of finescale (which implies re-wheeling all my Continental N gauge rolling stock, but this is a different topic).

I have to explain my idea of track plan besides the station: as I have very limited space but I'd like to have some running trains on my Layout (Italian modelers are obsessed with running trains...) my idea is to hide the tight curves under mountains, and to have smooth wide curves on the visible part of the layout.
I know this is not ideal, but it is the only compromise I found so far.

Very open to ideas and thoughts though!

Ciao,
Riccardo

P.S.: The excellent progress is mainly because of the very good training videos I found on the 2mm SA youtube channel, outstanding effort.
 
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