Trimming Track Sections

[bobel]

Sometimes it is necessary to trim sectional track or turnouts when making a single
crossover from a pair of turnouts or to fit turnouts in special situations.  Crossovers
between tracks with non standard separation is another example.

Any plans to add such a feature?

Alternatively is there a way to simulate sections and turnouts that are trimmed to non-standard lengths?

Bob E

[David]

Hello Bob,

We've had similar requests before, but it's not simple to accomplish.

Straight track and curves can easily be simulated using flex track, but there's no immediate solution for turnouts, crossings and such.

David.

[bobel]

I understand.  Can you suggest a workaround?  I've aligned track sections to overlap
to get the required trim.  It looks OK but of course there's no connection and that leads
to problems.

I'm using AnyRail to prepare track plans for TrainPlayer so I can fix up problems in
TP but I don't like doing that.

Bob E

[jstea]

Bob,
Can you put your track plan on here so we can see it. I also use anyrail for TP and have never run into what you are saying. With the ability to mix track have been able to come up with just about any combination. The double crossovers and some walther rack do not play well with TP. I think Jim Dill and David are checking that.
Regards,    Jim

[bobel]

I don't really need a track plan to illustrate the problem.  Look at the following two situations:

You have parallel tracks with a spacing other than the 2" you get from the Walthers
double crossover.  Putting two single turnouts with their curved legs together the
minimum spacing is about 2.8".  A friend of mine has some yard tracks with a 1 7/8"
spacing.  How does he get a crossover w/o trimming the curved legs of the turnouts?

Or imagination a situation of trying to fit turnouts into an industrial setting.  You
might need to only trim an inch or less from a turnout but you can't do it.

I could imagine a neat solution in AnyRail.  Suppose you could specify the connection
needed and turnout # desired.  Wouldn't it be great for AnyRail to design a custom
turnout and print a template  :-)

If you are building a layout from scratch you could probably use the standard pieces but most people have an existing layout that they are trying to modify.

I looked through the HO track libraries and couldn't find any solution.

I know about the problem with TP and the Walthers double crossover and agree
that Jim and David are looking into it.  I found a minimum was needed in TP to
fix them but my testing was minimal.

Bob E

[jstea]

Hi Bob,
Sorry I misunderstood you my plans for TP are large and will never be built in the real world.  Jim

[santerdam]

(...)
I'm using AnyRail to prepare track plans for TrainPlayer so I can fix up problems in TP but I don't like doing that.
(...)

Why don't you ask TP to solve their own problems ? It looks to me, you try to misuse AnyRail to help your Walters problem. You are calling the wrong guy !

... so I can fix up problems in TP

Sander

[David]

Of course we are in contact with TrainPlayer about the issues concerning the integration. They admit that there are still a few problems at their end and they are working on it.

The original question of cutting sectional track stands. It has been on our list for a while, but so far I see no easy solution to solve this.

David.

[Jeff]

Of course the real problem remains. If you're using certain track brands, you will find that there are pieces (like 90 degree crossings) that are simply NOT designed to allow realistic parallel track design. The legs on the crossings are simply way too big. The 'overlay' technique works 'ok', but it doesn't allow for auto-connect or making a real connection of any kind. And this is just in AR! I've lost count of the times when I had to modify my layout's track plan to work around 45, 60, and 90-degree crossings.

I'm not saying it's possible to change AR to allow us to clip track ends, but it surely would be the ideal solution.

[David K Smith]

For what it's worth, I'd have to add my "vote" for the ability to trim track sections. I've been using AnyRail just long enough to find that making custom-length track sections is not a trivial process using flex. I understand that making switches and crossings trimmable would be a nightmare to code. But, at least for straight and curved sectional track, I would think it might be relatively easy to provide the capability to right-click on a track section and see an option called "Trim"; this would open a dialog box to solicit a single variable: the desired length of the straight, or the angle of the curve in degrees. Hovering over the section would indicate in the status bar that it's been trimmed to X length/X degrees.

Ultimately it would be even more useful if trimmed track parts could be added to a special track collection tacked onto the end of the track ribbon bar, so that the modified parts could be re-used, but this would not be a necessity, just a nice-to-have.

[David]

Hi David. There is a way to directly set the length or curvature of a flex using the flex functions in the right click (popup) menu.

We are considering adding a checkbox to 'lock' the flex settings.

David.

[David K Smith]

Hi David. There is a way to directly set the length or curvature of a flex using the flex functions in the right click (popup) menu.

We are considering adding a checkbox to 'lock' the flex settings.

David.

I wasn't aware of that function. That gets us halfway there! Thanks.

[Nick the Cabin Boy]

I would also like to be able to trim the end of a piece of track, such as a siding, without having to disconnect and resize it.
For example, if a siding is slightly too long, I would like to be able to highlight the end point and move it the required distance.  I can see that this might be tricky if the track is not exactly horizontal or vertical, but I'd be interested to know if it can be done.
Nick, in Tasmania

[David]

Nick, if you hold down Shift while dragging a control point of the flex, it will remain straight.

David.