Model Railroading > HO track easement?

Could you please point me to a link for HO track easements. I searched here but had no luck. Way back when MR had a great article on easements. I may not have it now after the great purge. TIA. ROC C&O

John Armstrong explained the quick & easy way to lay out a spiral easement using a flexible stick in his book "Trackplanning for Realistic Operation". I'm not sure, but it might have also been shown in "101 Trackplans".

Bob

I could not find them on their website, but when I was looking for them, I called Caboose Hobbies. They have track alignment gauges. I wanted some wide curves with my flex track and they have gauges that go from 22 up to at least 36 inch radius. I believe they are sold in two inch increments.

What are they? They are short pieces of metal that fit in between the rails of flex track (you can also use them for hand-laid). It holds the flex track at the desired radius, while you tack down the track. I think each gauge template runs about $3 or $4. (It might be more since it was about 10 years ago when I bought mine). Call up Caboose Hobbies and explain it. Good luck.

Some local hobby shops may have them as well.

AJ

Try this:

http://www.trackplanning.com/easements.htm

and this:

http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=290

and maybe this!

http://www.prototrains.com/easement/easement.html

Thank yall that's what I needed. ROC C&O

Back in the late 60's? Model Railroader put out one issue with some templates that you could cut out and make jigs from.

There have been quite a few articles on making spiral easements in Model Railroader over the years.

If you go to this website: http://index.mrmag.com/

and type in "spiral easements", you should come up with something.

If you have a CAD program like 3rd Planit, you can draw the center-lines of spiral easements and other track in 1:1 scale, print them off with printer and plop them down on the layout. (It also gives you the option of small, medium or large easements.) With 3rd Planit (and possibly other model railroad CAD software) you can make it mark where the easement begins and ends. This is where you want to ease in and out of super-elevation. I use curved track gauges like that made by Ribbonrails and then follow my center lines provided by the computer for the spiral easements at the beginning and ending of the curves.

Though I use 3rd Planit mostly, occasionally I use the "bent stick method" for modifications when it's
easier than going back to the drafting board. Spiral easements look cool and when combined with moderate super-elevation look even cooler! (I have also experimented with some flexible subroadbed like lathe glued in vertical strips to let the curve naturally ease into and out of the curve.)


Edit: I checked the magazine issue and the MR that has the templates is the October 1969 issue.

I use these too and then tweak the beginning and end of the curves following my spiral easement centerline provided by my CAD software. See my post above.


ajy6b Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I could not find them on their website, but when I
> was looking for them, I called Caboose Hobbies.
> They have track alignment gauges. I wanted some
> wide curves with my flex track and they have
> gauges that go from 22 up to at least 36 inch
> radius. I believe they are sold in two inch
> increments.
>
> What are they? They are short pieces of metal
> that fit in between the rails of flex track (you
> can also use them for hand-laid). It holds the
> flex track at the desired radius, while you tack
> down the track. I think each gauge template runs
> about $3 or $4. (It might be more since it was
> about 10 years ago when I bought mine). Call up
> Caboose Hobbies and explain it. Good luck.
>
> Some local hobby shops may have them as well.
>
> AJ