Garden Railway Forum

Hello folks. I've just joined the forum. With retirement approaching, I'm finally thinking about the garden railway that I've always wanted. Initially, just to test the water, it will be a simple ground level line using Peco SM-32 track, probably a run along one side of the garden with a run-round loop at each end. I have downloaded the turnout templates and am trying to calculate the length of the loops. I wonder if anyone could advise me how much extra I need to add to the maximum train length to allow for locos to run round with sufficient clearances? I'll be using the 'Ezee' kits from IP Engineering to start with, if that makes any difference.

Many thanks,
Kev

Hi and welcome to the forum Kev.

No problem with starting with these EZ series kits but they are fairly small models. Almost certainly in the future you'll want to move on to other manufacturers and you won't want to have to be relaying track to suit, so I'd suggest you plan for the future from day one. In which case I'd suggest going for minimum 150mm track centres on passing loops/sidings.

As another newcomer, welcome!

I was surprised how much longer my loop had to be than the length of my longest train when I seriously sat down to plan it. Just how much will depend on the radius of your points and the distance between the tracks. I use 8'-0" radius points and just under 6" centres for the tracks and have just measured 3'-6" from the start of the switch blade to the beginning of the parallel tracks. The points have about 3" lead in, so from the end of a train to the point at which single track resumes after the turnout is 3'-9", or for the whole loop, 7'-6" longer than the train. Lower radius points will reduce that, and the Peco website has some downloadable plans of their various points https://peco-uk.com/collections/sm-32-32mm

Thank you for the replies on this. I'm glad I asked, it's going to need a bit more space than I anticipated! Fortunately we have a fairly large garden so it shouldn't be an issue.

Kev

No problem asking anything on here, Kev. You can almost guarantee that somebody will know the answer, however obscure it might be!

If space is a significant consideration then Y points at each end will save you a bit, as the lines will diverge to the required distance more rapidly. I planned mine using Microsoft Train Simulator (building a 3D model of my garden 19.05 times full size) but that was because I had the software and had some route building experience - there must be tools aimed at modelling. Then again, just playing with a sheet of paper and some templates may be more fun.