Fenghuang0296 Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 (edited) Hey all, just a quick question; I have a curved rail in my city layout where I want to add a small train station. It's right in the corner, so it's somewhat out of the way. I'm just wondering if anyone can point me to some designs for platforms that fit curved rails? All the ones I've found are only for straight tracks. Edited July 27, 2019 by Feng-huang0296 Quote
zephyr1934 Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 The end of your train cars will swing out on the outside of the curves, while the middle of the cars will pull to the inside of the curve. Any platform will need to accommodate this clearance issue. Find your most extreme cars and use those for your baseline, then build your station back from there. I'm sure there are some clever ways of building a large curved platform (e.g., snotted slopes) but simply using wedge plates is probably sufficient Quote
Roadmonkeytj Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 Ive never seen a curved lego station before ... Probably for the reasons zephyr1934 mentioned. It would be best to build it on the "inside" of the curve rather than "outside" this will do two things ... Allow your cars with different geometry still navigate the curve and unless viewed from the side or top the train itself will hide any "imperfections" in the brick ... Also know as gaps lol. If you build it on the outside curve you will be more limited to what rolling stock you can run through the track based on how you build the curve. However here is a real life station to take notes from. (click it for link) Quote
Duq Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 Inside or outside, it's going to look odd. Because of the tight curves your platform will need to be a good distance away from the track. Quote
Fenghuang0296 Posted July 27, 2019 Author Posted July 27, 2019 I suppose I should have clarified; yes I intend to put it on the inside of the curve. And it doesn't have to be a spectacle, it's going to be sandwiched between two large buildings and a wall. I've run train tracks around the backs of some Modular Buildings and ended up with a gap on an inside curve that I want filled, it's that simple. I just want something passable that'll look better than a big open space between buildings and rail line (in a part of the city that currently does not have a train station). This is not something that I intend to put on display at a convention, or for people to look at more than briefly. It doesn't have to be a work of art, I just want something that works. Thanks for all your input! Quote
dr_spock Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 For sharp curves and cars with overhangs, it might better to build a ground level platform that meets up to the tracks. The overhang can go over the platform a bit and there aren't gaps for the LEGO passengers to fall through. Quote
Andy Glascott Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 I recently finished a station with 2 curved platforms - quite a challenge! Here's an in-progress image: WIP Station (DSC09747) by andyglascott, on Flickr @Feng-huang0296 the main piece I used was this wedge - https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=14181#T=S&O={"iconly":0} - with hinges connecting them which gave a nice uniform edge and curve for the inside platform. I have some work in progress pics somewhere, I can post them if I find them. The "finished" product looked like this: DSC00261 by andyglascott, on Flickr I never got the insides finished as I have recently changed jobs and will be moving, so have started the layout apart... Quote
Roadmonkeytj Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 @Andy Glascott Thanks for sharing that is pretty impressive. Hopefully your move goes well and is for the better. Quote
Fenghuang0296 Posted July 27, 2019 Author Posted July 27, 2019 6 hours ago, Andy Glascott said: I recently finished a station with 2 curved platforms - quite a challenge! @Feng-huang0296 the main piece I used was this wedge - https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=14181#T=S&O={"iconly":0} - with hinges connecting them which gave a nice uniform edge and curve for the inside platform. I have some work in progress pics somewhere, I can post them if I find them. I never got the insides finished as I have recently changed jobs and will be moving, so have started the layout apart... That is both gorgeous and exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to do (albeit with only one rail at present) thanks so much! Quote
Andy Glascott Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 14 minutes ago, Roadmonkeytj said: @Andy Glascott Thanks for sharing that is pretty impressive. Hopefully your move goes well and is for the better. Thank you, it's definitely a move for the better, I'll be a lot closer to my local LUG 7 minutes ago, Feng-huang0296 said: That is both gorgeous and exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to do (albeit with only one rail at present) thanks so much! You're welcome. The hardest part is getting the curved platform to line up with the regular straight edges of a normal Lego build.... Quote
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