12v track building, tools, ideas?

[cozzie4d]

Hi,

Almost done cleaning up the attick for my 80s city, built up around trains as the 'master piece'. 
In time I've collected a whole bunch of rails, so I was wondering if there are tools to help you create a neat 12v track. I've looked at the 7777 ideas book, but most of them leave me with mainly a lot of curves left.

I have:

• about 40 straight
• about 80 corners
• 2 crossings
• 4 switches (electrical)
• 1 signal light/post (might get a 2nd one)

Any ideas?

[Murdoch17]

Bluebrick is your best best. It's a digital track design program, and has 9V / PF, 12 / 4.5 V, and custom tracks from 3rd party makers as add-ons.

[cozzie4d]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot and drop some tests here, curious on what you think

[cozzie4d]

I played around a bit with Bluebrick and came up with this layout:

http://www.sierracosworth.nl/img/2024-04-03-layout4-test.jpg

But somehow at the top left (the 2 yellow circles), it doesn't perfectly fit/connect. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

Some context; I'm planning for a track with up to 4 switches, 1 or 2 crosses and 1 or 2 signal/ stop lights (currently have one). Total of 3 trains, 2 on separated tracks (by switches) and one at the station likely (where I'd put my for now single signal/stop light).

Edited April 3 by cozzie4d

[Andy Glascott]

Lego track doesn’t easily work with corners that aren’t 4 sections of curved track, so the irregular corners top right are what are causing the misalignment. 3 curves followed by 1 straight and then 3 more curves turning the other way do align with the regular geometry.

[Tassier]

If you want to have two trains running at the same time you really need them on separate loops rather than sharing any track, here's an example:
track1 by J Tassier, on Flickr

This uses Andy's "3 curves, 1 straight, 3 curves in the other direction" blocks three times so as to keep everything nicely in system, twice on the inside loop and once on the outside.  

If you want something with a more irregular geometry then this is an example, I used blue rails for all of the straights to make it easier to see:
track2 by J Tassier, on Flickr

This second track needed 42 straights though so not sure if you have quite enough.

[cozzie4d]

Wow, great. Thanks for the advice and examples. Clear on the curves not being 4 pieces each

[cozzie4d]

One more question, if it would keep 2 tracks separated from each other, would I be able to power them using a single transformer? With cables from the transformer going to both tracks

[zephyr1934]

On 4/3/2024 at 5:08 PM, cozzie4d said:

But somehow at the top left (the 2 yellow circles), it doesn't perfectly fit/connect. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

 

On 4/3/2024 at 7:04 PM, Andy Glascott said:

Lego track doesn’t easily work with corners that aren’t 4 sections of curved track, so the irregular corners top right are what are causing the misalignment. 3 curves followed by 1 straight and then 3 more curves turning the other way do align with the regular geometry.

 

For small gaps like that, as long you are not rigidly holding the track in place with baseplates, often the track has enough flex that you can close those small gaps without any problems. Only way to know for sure is to test it though.

 

[cozzie4d]

Thanks @zephyr1934 will give it a shot. Do you maybe also know about the 2 tracks with one transformer?

[zephyr1934]

Lego trains are surprisingly robust and often very forgiving (they were designed for kids after all), that means they are robust to some unusual circumstances. Best way to find out if something will work is to build it up and see what happens. I've never worked with the 12v system, but it probably shares a few aspects with the 9v system: the controller probably can power at most N motors, and the further the motors are from the power connection (as measured in # of track segments) the more power is lost to the resistance at each joint in the rails. The power distance can be improved with more power connections. The max number of motors is a limitation of the system. I THINK the system is safe to try just about anything reasonable, but if a train does not move or something else unexpected happens, shut off the power and diagnose the problem.

 

Hope this helps

[Andy Glascott]

It is possible to run two trains with one transformer but when running both at the same time they will be slower than running one at a time. If you want to run two trains your best option is to have 2 distinct loops, such as the layouts Tassier posted, otherwise you will have to make sure you can stop one easily before it catches up to or crashes into the other (no two trains run at exactly the same speed!).
 

Two loops connected by points/switches will always have power in the 12v system, though another option would be to have two loops that aren’t physically connected and run wire from the transformer to each loop. 

[cozzie4d]

Good news, I've almost finished my layout and started to build today (inner track first).

There's one small issue, because of the switch points, I end up with missing half a straight section.
Any ideas how I could solve this one?

Ah never mind, I fixed it by using a different point (L vs R)