UP SD40-2's NEW Layout

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Thanks for your input/advice David

I'm a little disappointed tonight, made a cardboard 30 radius template, placed two of my Milwaukee pass cars on it, wow, not convinced the curve is big enough to make the cars look good going through it . It takes so much space to do too, I have to start the curve 3.5' from the end of the board to give enough room for the double mainline to make it. Doing that gives me just 7' of straight track on the 16' sides of the layout. I am strongly thinking of doing the outside main at 32R, means less room but... :cry: .

I could go 2' longer making the layout an 18'x 11' rectangle, that brings the cost up a bit, but the extra 2' in length might be worth it :| . So is the problems with big stuff to run, its so awesome to have but you just need so much room to run it.

Just two oddball shots...

Deano,

I'm not sure if the same specifications apply to those Milwaukee Road cars, but I know from my own research, that the 85' Jersey Arrow commuter cars have a minimum prototype radius of 250 ft. This translates to just about 36" radius in HO scale.

If these cars are like my commuter cars, They would likely need closer to 36" to begin to look prototypical.

This doesn't help your space predicament any, but then I'm sure there is a way to adapt to this.