I have a rather long straight away of Kato 20-004 N Scale Straight Concrete Tie Double Track. I want to include a street or highway underpass that will match up with the Double Track. Can anybody recommend a bridge(s) or viaduct or overpass that will match up with the distance between the Kato double tracks?
John, Thanks for the recommendation. I could only find 6" open deck girder bridges in N scale. The problem with that is that, unlike through deck girder bridges, the girders are below track level so there's not enough height for an underpass. Thanks for the idea. Richard Richter
I believe Kato makes some through girder bridges as well as a through truss bridge. I think the through truss bridge is double track but not sure of the through girder bridge. Atlas also makes some bridges.
Is the Kato 20-435 (through 20-438 depending on color) Double Track Bridge track spacing different than that of your double track sections? I'm no expert in this.
I'm not an expert either so I asked Kato but a month later have not received a reply. I also included the double track viaduct in my question. They're usually ahead of the game in getting out the information. I think I'll take my chances and buy the double track hoping it will fit. It's not a ton of money and I can included it in another order to cut down on shipping. I'll let everybody know the results. Richard Richter
That's probably a safe bet, as Kato goes to great lengths to assure compatibility amongst pieces. Yes, please let us know how it works out.
All Kato N Scale Unitrack doubletrack pieces: ground level, viaducts and bridges, have the same track-track separation distance (33mm between centers, IIRC), until you get to the Unitram stuff (with narrower track to track spacing.) Their through-truss and plate girder bridges have less under-rail structure, for more clearance underneath, than their Viaducts and deck girder bridges for a given rail height. Like single-track viaducts, single-track bridges can all be used side by side and maintain 33mm c-c spacing.
Andy, Thanks for the clarification. I ordered the double track plate girder bridge on a gamble but it's nice to know I won the bet! Richard in Edgewater, NJ
Just as a follow-up, the Kato Double Track Plate Girder Bridge fits perfectly with Kato Unitrack Double Track.
The under bridge clearance is the same actually. On my railfan layout I had a truss bridge, but due to the huge bear paws I have for hands cleaning inside the bridge was difficult at best. I swapped the bridge with a viaduct piece of the same length and the track matched up perfectly to my abutments. Looked much better too. And yes as others have said, all Kato double track pieces including the superelevated, standard track, crossovers and double bridges, all have a 33mm spacing so they are perfectly compatible.
While they all match up perfectly to each other and viaducts, if you look closely at a through truss bridge, it has a block at each end that sits on top of the pier. The rest of the underside of the through truss bridge is higher than the tops of the piers, for more clearance underneath the bridge. Same for plate girder bridges. The bottom of a viaduct piece is at one level, end to end, and thus is no higher than the top of the pier.
WRT superelevated track pieces, you just have to make sure you use the transition pieces when connecting non-superelevated tracks to superelevated tracks. You might be able to get away with connecting ordinary single track unitrack directly to superelevated pieces (without the transition piece), because the single track pieces (excluding viaducts, bridges, switches, etc.) are fairly flexible and can twist some. I haven't tried it, but I would not be surprised if it works. Uniformly supporting the roadbed on such pieces could be challenging...
