{"id":121,"date":"2023-11-17T11:26:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T17:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/?p=121"},"modified":"2023-11-28T17:22:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T23:22:57","slug":"tower-line-design-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/2023\/11\/17\/tower-line-design-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Tower Line Design Guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Since I started my design journey. I have collected the &#8220;must have&#8221;, &#8220;nice to have&#8221;, and the &#8220;hell no&#8221; items. Since then, I have estblished this guideline for myself to help stream line my decision process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I will be updating this guide over time. Pleae feel free to leverage anything or nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tracks by type<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mainline: \u201cSingle Track\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">It generally refers to a route between towns, as opposed to a route providing suburban or metro services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Min Radius 20\u2019<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Min Switch R6 Switches<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Two major bridges \u201cparade routes to showcase, take pictures, and create focus\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Mostly single track<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Must haves: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wye_(rail)\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wye_(rail)\">Wye (rail)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Two major sidings to manage trains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Branch Line &#8220;single track&#8221;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a main line.<br>Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located on a main line.<br>Branch lines may also connect two or more main lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Min Radius 16\u2019<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Min Switch R4 Switches<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Classification Yards<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Spurs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Min Radius 8\u2019<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Min Switch R4 Switches<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fiddle Yard<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tunnel \/ Portal Clearances<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Track spacing is measured from center to center of the rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Single Track<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tunnel Height 10&#8243;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tunnel Width 6&#8243; when in straights<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tunnel Width 7\u201d inside curves 6 \u00bd\u201d on the outside<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Double Track<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tunnel Height 10&#8243;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tunnel Width 10&#8243; when in straights<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tunnel Width 11\u201d inside curves 10 \u00bd\u201d on the outside<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Track Spacing 6.5\u201d Strait<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Track Spacing 7.25\u201d Sharp Radius &lt; (24\u201d)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Track Spacing 7.25\u201d Medium Radius &lt; (30\u201d)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Track Spacing 7.25\u201d Wide Radius &gt; (48\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Design Tools<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Drawings can be made with pencil on paper or on a computer using software designed specifically for model railroads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scarm.info\/index.php\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.scarm.info\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SCARM<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/templot.com\/companion\/installation.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Templot<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.anyrail.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Anyrail<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/shop.atlasrr.com\/t-software.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Atlas <\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.trackplanning.com\/how-will-you-plan-your-layout.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">3rdplanit (3d Models)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since I started my design journey. I have collected the &#8220;must have&#8221;, &#8220;nice to have&#8221;, and the &#8220;hell no&#8221; items. Since then, I have estblished this guideline for myself to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[8,12,11],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-towerline","category-gardenrailroads","tag-cnw","tag-guide","tag-tower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minnesotafriends.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}