GAUGING THE TRACK

RAILWAY LAYOUTS GAUGING THE SPACE

Not everyone has the luxury – or indeed the bravery – to dedicate a room to a train layout. Fear not; Jamie Douglas is on hand to show you how, regardless of the space you have available

Words: Jamie Douglas Photography: Andrew Tipping

Train expert and creator of the epic Manchester

Brickadilly railway model, Jamie Douglas, is here to give Bricks readers a beginner’s guide to building a train layout. From which trains to buy first to how to maximise battery life and even tips on building tunnels, it’s time to listen to our resident conductor and start laying the tracks.

A few weeks ago, the LEGO Group released a new train – 10254 Winter Holiday Train, reviewed on page 54 of this issue – which seems likely to get a whole new generation of fans interested in LEGO trains. Given the potential for increased interest in running a train layout, it’s worth taking the time to explore the options – and the physical implications – of building a layout using LEGO elements.

Although many people who buy the Winter Holiday Train will simply use it to run around their Christmas tree, many will then use the set as the starting point of adding trains to their existing City layout. With LEGO trains, it’s very easy to want to add a bit more track, maybe an extra siding here, an extra train there, another loop perhaps, until before you know it you’re wondering whether you can justify converting the loft space to house your LEGO layout – if you haven’t already done so!

But let’s backtrack a bit first. Let’s look at the things you need to know when first building a layout into your city. Let’s look at all the things that it doesn’t tell you on the box, and which most people figure out by trial and error. Firstly, let’s look at space.

If it isn’t already apparent, LEGO trains take up a lot of space. The track gauge (the distance between the rails) is a lot larger than the scale used on most model railways. Those who had a Hornby train set when they were a child will remember being able to fit quite complex layouts into a relatively small space. Because of the space needed for LEGO trains, you’ll need to think about just how big and complex you want your railway to be, and how much space you can allocate to it.

As the radius of the LEGO curved track is 44 studs (35.2cm), the minimum size of a LEGO railway is 88 x 88 studs (70.4cm) – basically, a circle of track. You’ll want more than that if you don’t just want it to go around your Christmas tree but it’s worth bearing that size in mind because it’s also the width of a standard 180-degree turn of track. Because LEGO track is 8 studs (6.4cm) wide, you may already have worked out that you could put LEGO Modular Buildings back-to-back inside a loop of track 88 studs wide, and still have 8 studs of space left over.

60098 Heavy-Haul Train is one of three City train sets currently available WHICH TRAIN SHOULD I GET FIRST?

This is ultimately a decision for you and you alone, based on factors such as how much you like them, the price of them and perceived value for money. All three of the City trains currently available (60051 High-Speed Passenger Train, 60052 Cargo Train and 60098 Heavy Haul Train) come with all the Power Functions elements you need, and also show you how it all connects together. The 10254 Winter Holiday Train doesn’t come with the Power Functions elements, but is more detailed than the City trains, which are aimed squarely at children. The three City trains come with straight track as well as curved track (and Cargo Train also includes points), whereas the 10254 Winter Holiday Train only comes with curved track.

It comes with 16 curved tracks and 12 straight tracks to get you started

60051 High-Speed Passenger Train has 16 curved tracks and 4 straight tracks

“YOU NEED TO GIVE YOUR TRAINS ROOM... LONGER TRAINS WILL OVERHANG”

Other track dimensions are worth knowing too. A section of standard straight track is 16 studs (12.8cm) long, and the points (switches) are double that, at 32 studs (25.6cm). If you add a siding using points and a section of curved track, the gap between the two parallel tracks will be 8 studs.

Once you start setting up your new train layout though your city, there are a few things which you’ll need to take into consideration. The first may sound obvious, but it’s worth expanding on – you need to give your trains room! When your trains start running around your track, the tightness of curves on LEGO track will mean that some of the longer trains will either overhang the outside of the track at the front, or will overhang on the inside, or even both. What this means in practice is that you’ll need to leave a gap on both sides of the curved track. If you put a minifigure right on the edge of the curved track, the train will probably knock it over. Put a building there, and it’s likely that you’ll derail your train.

Pushing your train around the track before you add buildings will help you to determine how much gap you need to leave clear, but be aware that if you later make or buy a longer train than you’re using at first, it may need more space. As an example, the Winter Holiday Train is quite short, so it won’t have any overhang issues. If however, you were then to get 10219 Maersk Train or 10233 Horizon Express, you’d find that the overhang on those trains is a lot more. Generally though, if you leave a gap of 3 studs, that should be enough.

I’ve known people who build a tunnel, only to find that the train derails inside it because they’ve built it too close to the curved track. This can easily be avoided with a little forethought.

Another issue to consider if you’re building tunnels or bridges is the height of the train, and the physical space it takes up in cross-section – that is, if you cut a slice through it. In railway terminology, the maximum height (and width) of the train is called the ‘loading gauge’. Most LEGO trains are roughly the same height, so it’s generally quite easy to build your bridge or tunnel a couple of bricks higher, without any issues.

There are one or two exceptions, however. An example of this is the Horizon Express train, which has pantographs on top of it (a pantograph is the extendable metal bit on the top of electric trains, to get power from overhead lines). This pantograph can be raised or lowered, and this can extend the height of the train quite a bit. At a show earlier this year, I was running a 12-car Horizon Express on my layout, and I had just changed the cab over after recharging the batteries. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten to lower the pantograph on it, which then – at full speed – hit the pedestrian bridge inside my station (which is 2.5m long and fully covered). The speed of the train took out the bridge, causing the Horizon Express to derail and the bridge to collapse onto the tracks, which was then hit by two other trains, right in the middle of my station, where it was hardest to access it. Many, many minifigures died in the resultant pile-up, and it took me about 20 minutes to sort the whole mess out. Lesson learned: height matters!

This also highlights another issue that you may need to consider – that of

60052 Cargo Train has 8 straight tracks, 20 curved and points

WHAT POWER FUNCTIONS DO I NEED, AND HOW DO I CONNECT IT ALL?

If you own a non-powered train you will need four Power Functions elements: The Remote Control (8879), the IR Receiver (8884), the AAA Battery Box (88000), and the Train Motor (88002).

Connect the Train Motor lead to the IR Receiver and connect the IR Receiver lead to the Battery Box. Put 6xAAA batteries in the Battery Box and 3xAAA in the Remote Control. Make sure that the channel switch on the Remote Control is in the same position as on the IR Receiver (1, 2, 3 or 4). Each channel has two signals: blue and red. Whichever colour you connected the Train Motor lead to on the IR Receiver is the colour dial you use to control it on the Remote Control.

With two on each channel, it’s possible to run eight trains independently of each other using the same controller. When running a lot of trains at shows it’s easiest to use four different controllers, each set to a channel. ‘Colour code’ each one along with the relevant loop of track using coloured tiles. This way you don’t have to remember which channel controls which train; just match the colours of track and controller. You probably won’t need to do this with a home display though.

You might want to use rechargeable batteries (but check they will fit as some are slightly too large for the box) or the Rechargeable Battery Box (8878). However the latter is probably not costeffective to use on a home layout; it costs over three times as much as the normal one and you’d also need to buy the 10V Transformer (8887), which itself isn’t cheap.

Finally, you can also buy Lights (8870) for your trains, and connect them to the IR Receiver in the same way as the Train Motor.

access. If you decide to build a tunnel into your layout, how will you rescue your train if it derails inside it? Again, a little forethought – and a lift-off tunnel roof – will save you a lot of hassle later.

Tunnels could also cause you problems when trying to control the train. The infrared (IR) signals from the controller will not travel well in a tunnel, so the speed your train enters the tunnel will be the speed it exits it. The sight line for the IR controller is important too. You’ll get to learn through trial and error how far away you can be to control the train, but the one thing that is certain is that you need a fairly clear line of sight between the controller and the IR Receiver.

So with the important things sorted, which will hopefully help avoid any unnecessary crashes, let’s now look at a couple of other considerations. Are you intending to secure your track layout to your baseplates, or are you simply going to lay it on top? Are you even going to have baseplates, or are you just going to place the track on a tablecloth? Unless you have a large number of baseplates, you’ll probably just do the latter. This is actually quite a good option to start with, as it avoids the need for you to connect it all to the base.

Although the straight track is easy to connect to baseplates, the connection points on curved track don’t line up with the studs on a baseplate, so you’ll always end up with very few, if any, connections on the curves. If you decide to put flat tiles on the baseplates underneath the curves, you’ll then need to raise the straight track by one plate too, so that it keeps the same height. This can very quickly get very parts-intensive, and if you decide to go this route, you’ll find yourself running out of tiles and plates very quickly.

If you want to run out of them even more quickly, you could go further and build some ballast for your track. On a real railway, ballast is the crushed stones beneath the track sleepers, which has a number of uses. On a LEGO layout, it serves only to look good, and it cannot be denied that track with ballast looks better than track without. It does, however, use a lot of parts. How many depends on the technique you use – there are a few different techniques – but the one certainty is that you will use far more parts than you think you will. There are also various ways of ballasting curves and points, which are obviously more difficult than straights.

Personally, I don’t ballast my track. This is mainly because I display at shows, and I prefer to have the flexibility of just being able to lay the track out on baseplates, without it being fixed in any particular place. I also find that most kids who see my layout at shows are only interested in the trains, without being bothered whether the track has ballast or not. Of course, if you have a home layout, these considerations probably won’t apply, and you may decide to go down that route.

So hopefully you now have a good idea of the various options for creating a layout, as well as the different things to take into consideration. The key point with LEGO trains, though, is that the layout can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. It can be as simple as a loop of track laid out on the carpet, to as complicated as a fully ballasted layout with multiple loops and points, going around a fullylaid-out LEGO city.

As this is LEGO, there are even options for taking it further still. It’s entirely possible to change the normal train motor for a different type of motor, or to even go as far as using the Servo Motor as a basis to be able to change the points, should you wish to. Those, however, are discussions for another time.

In the meantime, have fun with your Winter Holiday Train, and have a merry (LEGO) Christmas!

ARE THERE WAYS TO MAXIMISE THE BATTERY LIFE?

The short answer is yes. Knowing the many different factors which affect battery life can help you to maximise it, especially if you decide to build your own trains.

The biggest single factor is friction; your enemy! It comes from many things, but the main one is the wheels. If they are too far apart, they will bind when going around curves and this will slow your train down and take its toll on the batteries. The type of axle is a factor too. Metal axles create much less friction than the plastic Technic axles, so always try to use the former to reduce friction.

The heavier the train is, the more power the motor will need to pull it. Getting a good weight distribution helps – ideally you want the weight over the train motor, to give the wheels more grip. Don’t put the motor at the front and all the weight at the back, as the wheels will struggle to grip.

The last significant issue is the length of the train. Not only do long trains have more weight, but the motor will also struggle to pull them around the tight LEGO curved track.

Using two motors will help to overcome the issues of weight and train length, and give more grip but will also add another issue – that you’re powering two motors instead of one. You’d also need to get a Polarity Switch (8869) to ensure that both motors run in the same direction. Huw Millington added a tunnel with a live camera feed to his display

WHAT’S THE SMALLEST TRACK I CAN MAKE?

Although the smallest looping train layout possible is a circle covering 88x88 studs, it is of course possible to create a ‘back and forth’ layout much narrower than 88 studs, with the proviso that you’d have to keep reversing the train at each end.

This kind of layout would be good if you don’t have the space available for a circle of track, but it is also suitable for a static display, with scenery to complete it. If you want to automate the train going back and forth on such a layout, this is possible using LEGO Mindstorms sensors, although these elements are not cheap.

TRACK SCALE

Jamie’s amazing model, Manchester Brickadilly , is a hit at shows 8x16 STUDS SMALLEST CIRCLE 88 STUDS 32 STUDS SMALLEST CIRCLE RADIUS 88 STUDS