R104+ radius/diameter measurements

[Amoreternum]

Hello everyone,

right now and in the next few months I will finish my apprenticeship to become a joiner, cabinetmaker, carpenter, or what ever the correct term is - I build furniture out of wood and other materials. To finish my apprenticeship I have to design and build a more or less complex piece, and since I grew rather fond of the train hobby in the last few months (and always have been a fan), I'd like to create a piece that displays and showcases my locomotives in style. For the centerpiece, I'm thinking about a panel made of glass or acrylic glass with the 37,5 mm gauge milled in, or rather, two milled in lines the trains can sit on or in just as they would do on real track.

I'm thinking about designing these two lines as one big convex curve that uses the same radius or diameter as third party train track, but here's my question - what are the actual diameters or radii of bigger curves? I already measured my R104s and got roughly about 170 cm in diameter, but I'd really like to know the measurements of curves with even bigger radii. 

Second question, but not as pressing, would it be allowed by eurobricks rules to post about my piece once it's finished?

Thanks ahead!

[coaster]

I'm way overdue to update this, but the dimensional information hasn't changed:

https://7861eae8-f79f-4a80-8276-06cf52632ba8.filesusr.com/ugd/b054be_5ea36d8302474337a2bf402fe3e1bf90.pdf

If you want the centerlines, a stud is 8mm, so multiply the radius by 8 to get it in mm.

[Amoreternum]

40 minutes ago, coaster said:

I'm way overdue to update this, but the dimensional information hasn't changed:

https://7861eae8-f79f-4a80-8276-06cf52632ba8.filesusr.com/ugd/b054be_5ea36d8302474337a2bf402fe3e1bf90.pdf

If you want the centerlines, a stud is 8mm, so multiply the radius by 8 to get it in mm.

That's helping quite a bit - thanks alot!

[ivanlan9]

You really need to post photos of the finished project here.  Fine furniture that shows off your trains?  That's a no-brainer.  And there are (or must be) some few of us who do both woodworking and Lego.

Metta,

Ivan

[zephyr1934]

13 hours ago, ivanlan9 said:

You really need to post photos of the finished project here.

Agreed

[Amoreternum]

Alright, seems I do not have a choice, thank you guys! But it will be a while until then, at least half a year - the final plans aren't due until mid of April, and construction begins some time after that. I'll keep you updated once I get going!

[M_slug357]

@Amoreternum I think people love to see some of your preliminary design sketches & design work!

[Amoreternum]

Well, it's not that much - yet, since the idea of not building a desk as I originally planned to for around a year came just last week, but here's a drawing of what the piece might look like.

The idea is to build a sideboard or lowboard, although I'm not sure if these terms mean in English what they do in German, as funny as that might sound our language has the habit to use English-sounding words that don't make sense. So basically, it's a long half open cabinet, rather small in height and depth since I want to emphasize it's length which should come in at around 240 cm or so - since I'm building in 8 wide, I want to have enough space to showcase more than just one or two locos at the same time, although my models aren't that huge yet. I think about four flap dours in the front, three of which include removable drawers with storage for curves, straights and switches, the last one being a place to store everything else that does not fall into one of the prior categories - I'll plan the drawers around the sizes of the individual parts, so they won't be much wider than a few pieces of tracks next to each other. The piece is supposed to be situated almost at ground level, since I doubt that I'll have a stationary layout I plan to use the piece as storage for the track, and every time I want to, I can take out the individual drawers and place the track on the ground. One detail I came up with after drawing this one was to include three or four massive feet made out of oak or beech in roughly the same size as sleepers of real rails, unfortunately german law makes it impossible to use real ones due to them being contaminated with pollutants (is that how you call that? Sounds wrong to me.), so I'll have to figure out a way of making the pieces look like the real deal. 

The final thing I thought of so far would be a lighting system inside the open space, located inside the top parts bottom side, so it's hidden from sight. I looked up some systems that are used for model railroads that emulate day-night-cycles, and found one that can be programmed and controlled by using an Arduino - I have no experience with that kinda stuff, so I might stick to a different system, but I think it would be a nice touch that pays hommage to model railroads instead of being simple lighting that highlights the trains.

That's pretty much it so far, still thinking about color and surface materials although it will most likely be black with a clear coat, with the panels that have the milled in radii (located in the open space in the middle, above the flap doors and on top of the piece) in white to reflect the lighting.

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Amoreternum

[supertruper1988]

19 minutes ago, Amoreternum said:

//Well, including an image does not work - how do I include them in my posts? Already uploaded to an image hoster.

Just a quick look at your image host and there is a section at the bottom:

You will need the "BB Code" link

Then you get this:

[Amoreternum]

Ah, I see - thanks alot! Now it's working.

[zephyr1934]

Sounds like it will be a beautiful showpiece in more ways than one.

 

21 hours ago, Amoreternum said:

I think about four flap dours in the front, three of which include removable drawers with storage for curves, straights and switches,

Just one warning, do not count on being able to fit everything in there at once. Curves and switches take up way more space than straight track. At some point BrickTracks or TrixBrix will come out with a piece of track that does not fit your storage, etc. And of course as you build more you will find you have more and more favorite locomotives. But it totally makes sense to have enough room to store the track for a "good layout" allowing for quick set up and tear down.