It is difficult to contain our excitement. We took the plunge and purchased some excellent quality metal clad LEGO compatible track from Michael Gale at FX Bricks. As a club, we have enough for a complete circle and this will greatly improve our show layouts, for two reasons:
– The trains will be able to operate more smoothly through the larger radius turns, both in that they have less drag for longer trains and can run at higher speeds.
– The layout looks more realistic. Two concentric turns, one R72 and one R88, looks better than two R40 curves side by side.
As a side note, for those that are not familiar with the curved track nomenclature, the R stands for radius and the number is the number of studs from the centre point of the circle to the centre of the track. The following image from FX Bricks clearly shows the various possibilities, noting that the standard R40 track from LEGO is not shown. Also, it is standard practice to offset the edge of the track four (4) studs from the edge of the base plate.
