Track curves with different wide radius sections

[coreyg]

I have become fascinated by the non standard curves that the FxBrick Catalog (Summer 2021) have in their Progressive Curves, Loop Variety 1 and 2 sections and I'm wondering if there's more examples of what's possible with the new track pieces that are now available.  I finally (after a few hours of digging up old memories of trig) got a spreadsheet working to calculate the locations of various end points of the track sections and plugging in one of FxBricks' Loop Variety 1 and the locations (if my calculations were correct) were exact (or at least to 2 decimal points).  The one I tried was R56+R56+R56+R40+R40+R40+R40+S16+R40.  That implies to me, there's some mathematical reason for it (although, I guess it could just be luck).  I was wondering if there were other options beyond what they have or other ways to look for this.  It seems like just plugging different curves in is going to take a while to find anything.

Also, I was very curious about the 45 deg section on Plan 5 with the very low key explanation of "A 45deg bend is added to one corner to add visual interest make the layout slightly more compact".  So, how did they know that combination of track would work?  Trial and error?  I did plug that one into my calculator (R72+R72+S16+S16+S16+S16+S16+S16+S16+S8+R56+R56+S3.2+S3.2) and it's a bit off (.06 studs in one direction and .17 studs in the other direction), so not exact, but obviously close enough.  Are there other 45deg options (beyond the increase all of the curves and get the next larger one)?

I had found (somewhere on the internet), an S-Curve based on R88 curves (R88+R88+S16+S16+S16+R88+R88) and by my calculation, it's .23 and .30 studs off alignment (close enough).   The S-curves based on R64P sections were of course exact.

Is there more info on this type of stuff somewhere?  I'm getting bored with just straight loops and I'd like to have my track move in different ways.  I have my track on MILS, so it has less tolerance than a loose bit of track and I have to plan ahead since I have to build the base.

Thanks for any info or pointers on this.

-Corey

[davidzq]

http://l-gauge.org/wiki/index.php?title=Reference_Track_Configurations

[coreyg]

On 11/26/2022 at 10:40 AM, davidzq said:

http://l-gauge.org/wiki/index.php?title=Reference_Track_Configurations

Thanks for the link.  There's a couple possibilities in there that I didn't know about.  And if FxBrick comes out with a 4 stud long track, there would be a lot more that could work.

-Corey

[Andalo_an]

In their 2019 announcement post there was an S4 piece but there hasn't been any mention of it since.

[davidzq]

There are 4 stud pieces available for PF from BrickTracks (injection molded), TrixBrix (3D printed), or 4D Brix (3D printed) which can be adapted to 9v with copper tape. At least until a FX releases their own.

Or you can try reaching out to Andy Mollmann (OKBrickWorks) who sells 3D printed 9v track (HO Code 100 rail inserted) and see if he can produce 4 long.