Garden Railway Forum

I'm looking at possibly making a micro / cameo layout & I would like to know how small a turnout can be made.
The locos will only be small simplex & ruston diesels so nothing to make the turnouts need to be big.

I've looked on templot for 16mm track but the track library doesnt have no 16mm track so I'm a bit lost.

Has anyone got any experience building small turnouts?

I've never made my own track work, but I have used Faller track and points on a small indoor running circuit.
You could always test your locos on a Faller point and then use it as a template to make your own.

Simon-m wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 7:35 pm I'm looking at possibly making a micro / cameo layout & I would like to know how small a turnout can be made.
The locos will only be small simplex & ruston diesels so nothing to make the turnouts need to be big.

I've looked on templot for 16mm track but the track library doesnt have no 16mm track so I'm a bit lost.

Has anyone got any experience building small turnouts?

The smallest radius prefab conventional turnout that Hudsons sold for 2’ gauge industrial use scales out at about 4’ radius in SM32.

Mamod/MSS turnouts are 2'6” radius, which is probably as small as they come commercially in SM32.......

The 16mm Assoc. website has templates for making 2’6” radius turnouts that can be printed out full size. Look under the 'resources' menu, in 'track drawings'.

Much smaller than that and you'd be looking at things like stub turnouts, or quarry type turnouts with single blades and no v-crossing.

Graeme

in 45mm gauge I have built nominal 12" radius semicircle track and points. They can be negotiated by locos and wagons with 120mm axle spacings.
here's a video of a special rotating turnout I built.

gregh wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 6:20 am in 45mm gauge I have built nominal 12" radius semicircle track and points. They can be negotiated by locos and wagons with 120mm axle spacings.

That's very neat Greg. Did you ever incorporate it into a layout?

Lot of interesting possibilities there.

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 3:27 pm That's very neat Greg. Did you ever incorporate it into a layout?

No, not yet. Other life problems have got in the way.


This video is related.

Gregh

That video is very interesting regarding the radius on which your models work.
I wonder if my ip simplex could negotiate a 1ft radius curve? I have a 5x2ft board I was going to butcher for a small cameo layout. I'm now wondering if it could be used with a radius curve for a hidden siding & expand on the original track design.