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Weird title I know but I couldn’t remember what the change to the train track pieces is called. Anyway, I was working on them at the Trolley Museum with Pete thru the day and stumbled upon a potential happy accident. Please refer to the attached image as I explain.
We were using the instructions to put the additions onto the track and while talking with Laura, she commented on the fact that they end up not fitting correctly for things after being done because they are “too big” and indeed, the additional pieces are 2 studs total (1 on each side of the track) bigger than prior. I can see how this can make a headache for things such as baseplates that are already established with the current track configuration.
As we finished some of the track, I tested putting a curved one I was working on with a straight that Pete had finished. However, they were different, the straight was smaller by 2 studs and we figured out that Pete hadn’t placed the gray flats 8x2s correctly. If you look at the picture, the bottom straight track shows both ways, the top side has the way Pete had done it and the bottom side is how it is supposed to be based on the instructions.
Remembering what Laura had said, and thinking to myself that not only was it stronger the way Pete had done it and to me looked better overall, I decided to experiment with the curved track for a way to do the same, ie make it smaller to fit the width of the original track but also add in the extra look.
What I came up with seems to work and is less “flimsy”. If you look at the right curved, that is a full completed piece as per the instructions. The ends and corners can “break” off pretty easily. The left curved piece is a mixture of both the instruction way and my way: the left side is instructions, the right is mine. my way utilizes all the existing bricks the instructions do except the 2×4 flat grays would need to be 2×3 flat grays and one of the 1×4 flat grays would need to be a 1×3. That’s all that would be required to adjust it to work and be the same width as the track is normally configured to be.
The top 2 assemblies are what go in the middle of the curved track. You build 4 of them and place them in the middle of each curved piece. The left one is the instructions, the right is my adjusted one tho since I only had 1×2 ans 2×2 bricks to use, it’s not pretty, just done to illustrate the change that would be needed.
I kind of like the more compact feel of the way I adjusted thing but I also know there was some standard that was being looked at to change the track to fit. I still made all the curves and straights to be the instructioned way, with the extra 2 studs wide but the straight would be very easy to change if we wished (basically, switch sides for each of the 2×8 grays) the curves would take a bit more doing.
I dunno, thoughts? Just thought it warranted mentioning and potential discussion.
Overall, the track assembly needs to be 10 studs wide (the track itself is 8 studs plus one additional row of dark gray studs on each side) to fit with the baseplates without leaving any gap. So long as that is done, I don’t see any problem if a slightly different assembly method is used. I too noticed that the assembly per the instructions for the curves can be fragile when trying to connect two curves. So an alternate building method which would strengthen the curve assembly is a plus to me.
The curves can be fragile, No doubt about that. Unfortunately it is a problem no matter what you do (the pieces in the middle gaps fall out just as easy) so I say we keep following the standard and the instructions.
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