Another thread, on making turnouts, was spinning off in the direction of Kato Unitrack. Someone there said that they'd post some pictures of what you can do with Unitrack. Not to steal that person's thunder, but I haven't seen the post so I thought I'd show you all what I did with Unitrack a while back. This spaghetti bowl is basically three loops connected by double crossovers. One of the loops uses turnouts to allow you to select tracks over the viaduct or underneath. By leaving the double crossovers open I could run three trains simultaneously without them interfering with each other. But what fun is that? My friends and I enjoyed trying to swap tracks without stopping trains. There are ten turnouts on this layout. I used two Digitrax DS64s, putting both ends of sidings on the same output port so that they switched simultaneously. There is a reverse loop in the center of the image, controlled by a Digitrax AR-1 autoreverser. The siding at the far side of the table, mostly hidden by the viaduct was isolated and wired through a switch box so that it could be either the programming track or a working siding. I ran the trains using a Digitrax Zephyr, with DC power packs attached to the jump ports as additional throttles. The layout is on a 4x8' sheet of plywood on a dining table with a felt covering. I have used the same table top for HO Unitrack tracks and TT scale setups using Tillig's Bedding Track, which uses Kato's Unijoiner system. I've taken the whole thing down so that I can build standoffs to raise the plywood off the table. I plan on drilling a matrix of holes and cutting slits in the felt so that I can drop the wiring, through and put the DS64s and the reversing unit under the board.
That's a wonderful layout to just plain run trains! You can experiment easily too, until and if you want to try something else!
Could you e-mail me the spaghetti layout, it is hard to see the far end of your pict. thank you artkura@sbcglobal.net
Art; Welcome to Trainboard. That layout sort of evolved. I never made a layout diagram. I probably should. It will take me a couple of days to get it done, but I'll email it to you when I'm done.
I hate to dig up an old post particularly since this is my first post, but did anyone ever receive the layout for this? If so, I would be very interested in trying to build this. I inherited a bunch of Unitrack, locos/cars and a 4 by 8 table. I would love to build something but really don't know where to start. Thanks!
The thing with Unitrack....you can try all kinds of track arrangements and take it apart until you find something that you really like
Speedrat..... Kato has quite a few Unitrack plans on their website... http://www.katousa.com/track-plans/n-plans.html Search right here on TB (up top of the forum) >>> Unitrack track plans PLUS...Google >>> unitrack layout plans. There are hundreds more !
Thanks all. I appreciate the input. I've tried all the things you mentioned, but really liked the one above so thought I would take a chance. I'll keep plugging away at Google and the resources you mentioned.
