BrickTracks: different curves, PF/9V compatible

[coaster]

10 minutes ago, SD100 said:

How does the turnout vs siding curve work?

Just like in that picture, they're modified to bring you back to where you need to be.  The switches terminate at 22.62ish degrees (which is what you need for the crossover), and that extra .12 degrees results in you being about half a stud off, so the A and B curves compensate for that .12degrees.

[lego9vtrainfan]

Many thanks @coaster for working out all of the details and for bringing this product to market. Very excited that we are almost there — I’ve put my preorder in :)

[SavaTheAggie]

I would say shut up and take my money, but he's already taken it.  :)

 

--Tony

[Phil B]

14 hours ago, coaster said:

I will open the switches up for pre-orders starting tomorrow.  Here is everything that is included in each kit:

 

In for 2!

[SD100]

11 hours ago, coaster said:

Just like in that picture, they're modified to bring you back to where you need to be.  The switches terminate at 22.62ish degrees (which is what you need for the crossover), and that extra .12 degrees results in you being about half a stud off, so the A and B curves compensate for that .12degrees.

Should have looked at the website pictures before I asked... Placing my order shortly, horrified at the amount of money I'm about to drop...

[wes_turngrate]

18 hours ago, Selander said:

No pre-orders via Ha-bricks? 

@Coaster, as Selander says, do you know if will we be able to pre-order on the HA Bricks site, for European delivery? Thanks in advance...

Edited September 23, 2020 by wes_turngrate
addition

[coaster]

2 hours ago, wes_turngrate said:

@Coaster, as Selander says, do you know if will we be able to pre-order on the HA Bricks site, for European delivery? Thanks in advance...

Sorry, missed that one.  I talked to Hein, HA Bricks will indeed carry these.  Not sure if they're taking pre-orders yet, but I imagine they will be.

[zephyr1934]

Is there any possibility of "modifier parts" for these switches in the future? I can think of several geometries where one would need special crossover parts or extenders. I doubt any of these ideas would merit injection molded parts but perhaps they would be profitable enough to justify the design and then 3D printing by Brick Train Depot or similar.

1) spacers for a ladder track in a yard. It would be great to be able to finally make a yard with tracks at the right spacing without the "S" curves of normal lego switches

2) some way to escape a double track curve with R104 on the inside and R120 on the outside where the R104 switch is the first segment in the curve. It could be one or more of the following

• a crossover piece for the straight off of the R104 switch to cross the R120 track
• the unusual short track segments necessary to start the R120 curve with an R104 switch
• possibly both of the above to allow for a double track junction

I could see #1 being a lot easier and more popular that #2 (not to mention the fact that it would sell more switches).

Anyway, these are just ideas for possible future projects...

The switches look great and thank you for bringing these to the lego train community!

 

[ritztoys]

@coaster Thanks so much for bringing these to the rest of my R104 tracks! 

Pre-ordered today.......Hooray!!

Edited September 23, 2020 by ritztoys

[coaster]

3 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

Is there any possibility of "modifier parts" for these switches in the future? I can think of several geometries where one would need special crossover parts or extenders. I doubt any of these ideas would merit injection molded parts but perhaps they would be profitable enough to justify the design and then 3D printing by Brick Train Depot or similar.

1) spacers for a ladder track in a yard. It would be great to be able to finally make a yard with tracks at the right spacing without the "S" curves of normal lego switches

2) some way to escape a double track curve with R104 on the inside and R120 on the outside where the R104 switch is the first segment in the curve. It could be one or more of the following

• a crossover piece for the straight off of the R104 switch to cross the R120 track
• the unusual short track segments necessary to start the R120 curve with an R104 switch
• possibly both of the above to allow for a double track junction

I could see #1 being a lot easier and more popular that #2 (not to mention the fact that it would sell more switches).

Anyway, these are just ideas for possible future projects...

The switches look great and thank you for bringing these to the lego train community!

 

Absolutely, in fact this is one of the reasons I split the base into 2 pieces.  Once I recoup some of this cost, I'll start working on the mold for the double crossover piece.  We only need one new piece to do those. 

Regarding the switch ladders, remember that funny 1.6stud straight track I have in the short straights pack?  There you go!

#2 would be a pretty narrow use case.  You're right that for molding it wouldn't make sense, but we could certainly explore making it available to 3D print via BTD.  We are exploring a few options with them, especially now that I've finally rounded off the R104s.  Between this and the Christmas train, I've got a pretty full plate through the end of the year.

[coaster]

Someone asked elsewhere, so I may as well share here too.  Here is the underside of the switches:

 

[legoboy3998]

10 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

2) some way to escape a double track curve with R104 on the inside and R120 on the outside where the R104 switch is the first segment in the curve. It could be one or more of the following

• a crossover piece for the straight off of the R104 switch to cross the R120 track
• the unusual short track segments necessary to start the R120 curve with an R104 switch
• possibly both of the above to allow for a double track junction

@zephyr1934 is this similar to what your are referring to (except the rest of the curve being R120)?  I had come up with that same idea about and proposed it to OK Brick Works a year ago.  He seemed less than enthusiastic.  I think it could be very helpful for LGMS layouts, especially for doing other than "racetrack" loop layouts.



Sal
WFB, WI

[zephyr1934]

19 hours ago, coaster said:

Regarding the switch ladders, remember that funny 1.6stud straight track I have in the short straights pack?  There you go!

Excellent! Could you post an exploded view of a ladder track assembly?

 

 

19 hours ago, coaster said:

#2 would be a pretty narrow use case.  You're right that for molding it wouldn't make sense, but we could certainly explore making it available to 3D print via BTD.  We are exploring a few options with them, especially now that I've finally rounded off the R104s.  Between this and the Christmas train, I've got a pretty full plate through the end of the year.

Cool, and exactly that, there would be a small number of people who would want that, but those that did would REALLY want it. Those would be the customers with lots of R120 and R104 tracks already, and the 3D printed parts would help sell more R104 switches. I'm in no rush, odds are my next show is more than 6 months off.

 

12 hours ago, legoboy3998 said:

@zephyr1934 is this similar to what your are referring to (except the rest of the curve being R120)?  I had come up with that same idea about and proposed it to OK Brick Works a year ago.  He seemed less than enthusiastic.  I think it could be very helpful for LGMS layouts, especially for doing other than "racetrack" loop layouts.



Yes mostly. My first bullet would only have the top switch and the straight track would cross over a parallel R120 track. My second bullet would only have the bottom R104 switch and ideally it would continue into an R120 curve, so the switch would likely need some funky spacers on all 3 branches. Then the third bullet is the combination of the two.

[coaster]

6 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

Excellent! Could you post an exploded view of a ladder track assembly?

Yep, I'll work on it and post it up.

[coaster]

Here is the layout for building a switch ladder:

 

 

[JWBDolphins]

That looks really great!  Now I need to find space....!

 

[M_slug357]

@zephyr1934 I've been looking at a similar configuration, and I think I've come close to a MiLS-friendly solution:

MILS Sketchwork (16): Double Mainline Split by Nick Jackson, on Flickr

What do you think?

[coaster]

Would be a custom piece, but I think you'd be better served lining up the switches and then customizing the curve segment to line it back up with R120 curves.

[Ashi Valkoinen]

@coaster, could you tell me, placing an R104A and R104B curves together will result at same geometry as putting 2 pieces of standard R104 together?

Edited September 29, 2020 by Ashi Valkoinen

[coaster]

40 minutes ago, Ashi Valkoinen said:

@coaster, could you tell me, placing an R104A and R104B curves together will result at same geometry as putting 2 pieces of standard R104 together?

Yes.

[Ashi Valkoinen]

Amazing! So if someone buys two pairs to make connections between two paralel tracks, will have an extra 12 pieces R104 tracks. :O 

(4 standard R104 come from paralel returning, 8 R104 equivalent tracks from 4-4 R104 A and R104B.)

[M_slug357]

18 hours ago, coaster said:

Would be a custom piece, but I think you'd be better served lining up the switches and then customizing the curve segment to line it back up with R120 curves.

Did some additional sketching on BlueBrick as well as irl, and I agree that having the switches lined up seems to make sense. I measured the length of the straight segment between the branch and the curve to be roughly 12.5 studs. Which in turn leads to some interesting visuals:

MILS Sketchwork (17): R104 Triangle by Nick Jackson, on Flickr

Setups like this would be great for connecting LGMS layouts!

[Phil B]

2 hours ago, M_slug357 said:

Did some additional sketching on BlueBrick as well as irl, and I agree that having the switches lined up seems to make sense. I measured the length of the straight segment between the branch and the curve to be roughly 12.5 studs. Which in turn leads to some interesting visuals:

MILS Sketchwork (17): R104 Triangle by Nick Jackson, on Flickr

Setups like this would be great for connecting LGMS layouts!

This feels off to me. How can you have an inner and outer curve both made with R104s, without the outer curve converging in?

[M_slug357]

@Phil B There are 12.5 stud long straight segments in the crossovers. In my irl test build there was maybe about 1-2 degrees of flex, but I’m thinking its due to not having the specialized turnout curve.

[zephyr1934]

On 9/25/2020 at 11:54 AM, coaster said:

Here is the layout for building a switch ladder:

Very nice, I'll be buying one of those yards before my next show... assuming the world will reopen some day.