[MOC] 4-Wide Scale Track

[Hod Carrier]

This is something that I've been sitting on for about three years without sharing before, but I thought I'd show it now. As the only lunatic building sub-scale trains in what I've been referring to as 4-Wide Scale there didn't seem to be much urgency to publish this design any earlier.

After creating a number of sub-scale trains my thoughts turned to how to display them, and that meant having some track to put them on. Clearly the standard LEGO 4-wide track is too clunky and simply scaling down normal 6-wide techniques didn't produce the right visual results. I wanted to show the sleep/tie ends but I didn't want them stretching too far across as this would look wildly out of scale. So instead this is what I came up with.

[SteamSewnEmpire]

So it's not narrow gauge, it's a smaller scale. Interesting. 

[JopieK]

Is Abellio also taking over now with the trains from NS in the UK? Both trains are very recognizable, before COVID I met both types usually on a daily base.

[zephyr1934]

Those tracks look great (as do the trains, but that's off topic, grin).

[Pdaitabird]

Great job packing so much detail into such a small scale!

[Hod Carrier]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. 

1 hour ago, JopieK said:

Is Abellio also taking over now with the trains from NS in the UK? Both trains are very recognizable, before COVID I met both types usually on a daily base.

It's starting to seem like it the way they're hoovering up rail franchises.   But no, those two trains are very definitely Dutch. 

[TJJohn12]

The rails are stellar!

Now - the $64,000 question: how are you planning on tackling curves. As someone who has been playing with narrow gauge minifig scale of late, I'd love to see where your brain takes a solution.

[Hod Carrier]

@TJJohn12 Yikes!! Now there’s a challenge.

I wasn’t planning on taking things that far, as I was really only looking into making a display track for 4-wide scale trains. What sort of curves are you looking to use? The standard LEGO narrow gauge ones (R28?) or some of the custom curves that other builders have come up with?

[TJJohn12]

22 minutes ago, Hod Carrier said:

What sort of curves are you looking to use? The standard LEGO narrow gauge ones (R28?) or some of the custom curves that other builders have come up with?

So I've been playing with the hybrid curves others have made out of 12v rail recently, trying to get them to a point I'm happy using 1x6 plates as ties. But I haven't tackled the problem in earnest yet because the train I'm designing requires some rarer parts I need to source first (red 2927 wheels to be specific). No train, no need for rails. ;-)

[LEGOTrainBuilderSG]

Wow a scaled down version on 4-studs wide tracks. Kudos to you for squeezing in that much detail in such a small model. 

Are you planning to power them? That would be mind blowing.

Also, great job on the sleepers (a lot of work to get that right width)

[SteamSewnEmpire]

Not to offer unwanted advice, but have you ever considered trying something that would result in slightly lower-profile rails?

[TJJohn12]

1 minute ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

...have you ever considered trying something that would result in slightly lower-profile rails?

I'm liking this idea too, but I'd liken the difference to Bachmann track versus laying track on a cork bed and ballasting. Each has a useful place - yours looks more "toy-like" and @Hod Carrier's looks more HO-layout like.

[Hod Carrier]

@TJJohn12 I imagine that you might be able to replicate something using hybrid curves, but I’ve never tried making any so I’m not sure what’s possible with them. If you’re looking to use 4-wide track to represent narrow gauge you may be able to get away with slightly coarser detailing in terms of sleeper/tie length and spacing, which may make things a little easier.

@SteamSewnEmpire That’s certainly another option. I’m not sure if that gives sufficient clearance for the wheel flanges, though (assuming of course that your train uses flanged wheels). I do concede that the rails are rather tall at this scale, but I’ve tried to mitigate that with the placing of the sleepers/ties. 

@LEGOTrainBuilderSG Do you mean swapping the plastic rails for metal ones, such as 9V? Yes I guess that’s possible. 

[TJJohn12]

12 hours ago, Hod Carrier said:

@LEGOTrainBuilderSG Do you mean swapping the plastic rails for metal ones, such as 9V? Yes I guess that’s possible. 

You wouldn't need to power the rails if you designed the system right - there's one intriguing part that could let you do it at this scale:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=5313a&idColor=10#T=C&C=10

That 4-wide motor - along with notched train wheels - would allow you to run on just the plastic. You'd need to position and hide the power bases every so often (tunnels? covered station platforms?). But in theory, it could work nicely. I've seen one MOC build a narrow gauge line with this concept in the past.

EDIT - found that MOC: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=371934

Edited July 17, 2020 by TJJohn12
added MOC referenced

[LEGOTrainBuilderSG]

58 minutes ago, TJJohn12 said:

You wouldn't need to power the rails if you designed the system right - there's one intriguing part that could let you do it at this scale:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=5313a&idColor=10#T=C&C=10

That 4-wide motor - along with notched train wheels - would allow you to run on just the plastic. You'd need to position and hide the power bases every so often (tunnels? covered station platforms?). But in theory, it could work nicely. I've seen one MOC build a narrow gauge line with this concept in the past.

EDIT - found that MOC: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=371934

I never knew such a thing existed! This opens up the doors to so many possibilities. 

[Feuer Zug]

Great work at the smaller scale. I've done some stuff at 4 wide, but they tend to be a mix between reality and a bit Chibi styled. Love to see this in real bricks. Trixbrix does some 4 wide track.

[Hod Carrier]

Alternatively you could create something around PF elements (click).