Rail yard...newbie here

[Brakie]

Case in point, his mainline is to tight next to that engine house. You can see the "excessive bend" indicators on the track. The track planning program does this to show that the flex track has been bent beyond the minimum radius (definitely tighter than 18", and probably tighter than 15", the minimum HO curve conventionally sold).
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Correct but, a little tweaking like removing the car shop and straightening the yard would eliminate the unnatural curvature by the engine house..A very simple tweak that would improve things.

[FlaRailFan]

Brackie,

Actually, its wierd, but the flex track often wont fit into curves were standard 18' rad track or greater will fit. What i mean is, when you see red, I have tested the curve out with hard track either, 18 or 22 or a combo of both, either way it works but the flex track doesnt want to fit those curves in the program. I used the flex track despite the red indicators in order to use less track and allow my self to build more since I am using a trail version of the program (which only allows 50 pcs of track) and building half the track in one window and the other half in another, then splicing them together with paint.

FYI guys I am going to look at all the suggestions and make the changes to the track, school started yesterday, and my seminoles played a big football last night so i havent had much sleep and havent been able to look at the track for a couple of days, but I am going to!

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Brackie,

Actually, its wierd, but the flex track often wont fit into curves were standard 18' rad track or greater will fit. What i mean is, when you see red, I have tested the curve out with hard track either, 18 or 22 or a combo of both, either way it works but the flex track doesnt want to fit those curves in the program. I used the flex track despite the red indicators in order to use less track and allow my self to build more since I am using a trail version of the program (which only allows 50 pcs of track) and building half the track in one window and the other half in another, then splicing them together with paint.

FYI guys I am going to look at all the suggestions and make the changes to the track, school started yesterday, and my seminoles played a big football last night so i havent had much sleep and havent been able to look at the track for a couple of days, but I am going to!

To be honest, if you have 7' wide worth of layout, you should shoot for broader curves. You won't regret it.


I might reccomend trying to learn XtrakCAD, since it will let you build whatever, and run virtual trains, so you can really see what fits. Its a bit of a learning curve, but its probably the most flexible of the free programs you can get.

SCARM is also good, because it has a 3D setting that lets you get a MUCH better idea of how the tracks come together. If you search SCARM on this forum, you'll find a thread for it.

This way, you won't have to worry about the "50 piece" limit.