Testing the track plan, Part 1

I feel I've gone as far as I can go with developing a track plan on paper, so I thought I'd move on to finalizing the plan with track pieces I have on hand.

The first thing was to make one of those tight curves that lead in and out of the urban section.

Radius? Tests I ran a few years ago suggested that a 7" radius would work with all my streetcars. I used an 8" one on the Mortimer Park Loop, and that worked ok except for the easement-free S-curve entry that caused some serious wheel grinding on longer cars, and at time derailments because of expansion and contraction of the roadbed that often had to be adjusted. I figured I'd use a 9" radius curve on this layout so my short diesels could also do a little street running. There are no S-curve entries, so that problem is eliminated.

I thought I'd make a 'free-standing' 9" radius curve by gluing some flex-track to a base of 0.040" styrene. The lead picture on this post shows how the track was pinned against a cardboard template cut to a suitable radius, and then glued to an underlying sheet of styrene. 

When it was dry the styrene was cut to fit the outside of the ties, and the whole thing was painted black. The length will no doubt need some further adjustment when assembling the layout.

On the aptly named layout table I laid out some track pieces to start puzzling out the left side arrangement of the track plan. The new 9" curve is seen in the upper left of the board. The layout table is 2' x 4', and the train layout won't be more than 4' wide at one side, so the table width is ideal for seeing how things will shape up.

I'm using standard Atlas code 100 track pieces for this. Most curves will be either 15" or 18" radius, other than those two 9" ones in the city section.

The first thing I learned was that I needed to use a left-hand switch for turning off into the inner loop instead of a right as per my drawing. The right-hander wouldn't leave enough room for buildings in the urban area and also provide a generously curved outer loop.

Next up, mocking up a passing track.