While I thought modeling the Port Townsend Railroad prototype (see what I did there? I used a model railroading term :) would be super cool, and it would be. I decided that going with a known track layout for my first build would be a good idea. I searched issues of Model Railroad Magazine and Blogs looking for N scale track layouts. I landed on a page run by Kato (coincidence?) listing a number of track layouts using the Unitrack. I wanted a layout that had elevation, an inner and outer loop to facilitate running two trains at once, a switching yard and the ability to add roads, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc. Oh and it has to fit in roughly a 60” x 30ish” area.
I picked this track plan:
In my dealings with O gauge and Lego trains I called “turnouts” “switches” and I had never realized there was a different name. I have seen them called "points" as well. O gauge and LEGO, at least the stuff I had exposure to, only had one type of turnout but in other gauges there are several different aspects to a turnout. Since this layout had a number of turnouts listed as #6 turnouts I needed to understand what that meant.
..And here is what it means. The #N designates a turnout that will have the turned out part, or the diverging part, one unit away from the straight part after N units of distance. So using inches for example, a #6 turnout will have the curved turnout section 1” away from the straight after 6” of distance. Ok that makes sense. So what is this thing they call a “frog” that is part of the turnout?
What is a frog?
That black plastic part where the two tracks meet is called a frog because it supposedly looks like frog legs. I guess the part needs a name so why not "frog"?
In two track DC model railroading as opposed to 3 rail AC model railroading like with O gauge, there are interesting issues you can run into with track polarity and continuity when building layouts more complex than a couple ovals. I haven't fully digested all those implications yet and that will likely be a later blog posting.
I picked this track plan:
In my dealings with O gauge and Lego trains I called “turnouts” “switches” and I had never realized there was a different name. I have seen them called "points" as well. O gauge and LEGO, at least the stuff I had exposure to, only had one type of turnout but in other gauges there are several different aspects to a turnout. Since this layout had a number of turnouts listed as #6 turnouts I needed to understand what that meant.
..And here is what it means. The #N designates a turnout that will have the turned out part, or the diverging part, one unit away from the straight part after N units of distance. So using inches for example, a #6 turnout will have the curved turnout section 1” away from the straight after 6” of distance. Ok that makes sense. So what is this thing they call a “frog” that is part of the turnout?
What is a frog?
That black plastic part where the two tracks meet is called a frog because it supposedly looks like frog legs. I guess the part needs a name so why not "frog"?In two track DC model railroading as opposed to 3 rail AC model railroading like with O gauge, there are interesting issues you can run into with track polarity and continuity when building layouts more complex than a couple ovals. I haven't fully digested all those implications yet and that will likely be a later blog posting.
Comments
Post a Comment