What is the gauge distance for railroad tracks?

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number.

What is the minimum radius for N gauge track?

Length of Your Train

Modeling Scale	Minimum Radius
Z Scale	7.6 inches or 195 millimeters
N Scale	9 3/4 inches
HO Scale	15 to 22 inches
HOn3 Scale	15 inches (narrow gauge)

What is minimum radius of curvature?

The minimum curve radius is a limiting value of curvature for a given design speed. In the design of horizontal alignment, smaller than the calculated boundary value of minimum curve radius cannot be used. Thus, the minimum radius of curvature is a significant value in alignment design.

How is railroad track gauge measured?

The gauge of a railroad track is simply the distance between the two running rails. This distance is measured against the inside faces of the rail heads at some distance down from the top of the rails. This distance down is known as the “gauge plane”.

Why were cabooses painted red?

A caboose was fitted with red lights called markers to enable the rear of the train to be seen at night. This has led to the phrase “bringing up the markers” to describe the last car on a train. These lights were officially what made a train a “train”, and were originally lit with oil lamps.

What is curve radius?

In differential geometry, the radius of curvature, R, is the reciprocal of the curvature. For a curve, it equals the radius of the circular arc which best approximates the curve at that point. For surfaces, the radius of curvature is the radius of a circle that best fits a normal section or combinations thereof.

What is the formula of radius of curvature?

Radius of Curvature Formula R= 1/K, where R is the radius of curvature and K is the curvature.

How do you calculate railroad curve?

Railroad engineers in the U.S. use degree of curvature to determine the sharpness of a curve. The definition is found by connecting two points on an arc with a 100-foot chord, drawing radii from the center of the arc to the chord end-points, and then measuring the angle between these radii lines.

What’s the minimum radius for a train track?

Find manufacturers who offer N-gauge track curves that are tighter than the 11 inches most enthusiasts view as the minimum radius for realistic modeling. For example, Kato offers 8.5-inch radius curves, and the Japanese manufacturer Tomix offers N scale minimum curves of 103 mm radius or 4 inches.

How is the degree of curve of a railroad track measured?

Railroad Curve Calculator. Curvature of railroad tracks, measures the degree of curvature (i.e) by measuring the degrees between the two radii of a circle having the track as the arc length. The measure of curvature of a circular arc is known as the degree of curve.

Is there a minimum curve radius for a toy train?

And, there are small “scale” prototypes and large “toy” models meaning there is still no definitive minimum radius. If you have parallel tracks in a curve, the spacing between tracks is important.

What should be the distance between the rails?

The sharper the radii, the greater the distance between rails will need to be. Depending on the model, trains may overhang the track on both the inside and outside of a curve. Space tracks too close and they could sideswipe. Easements are a gradual transition in radius.