Thanks and more questions!

[Jim Stewart]

Loco Bill, 

First of all thank you for your good advice.  I have since ordered 60' of straight track and 8' dia curved track and will see if I can confine my layout to the 8' dia curve to accomodate the use of a Three-Truck Shay which I have an interest in.  My trestles are based on a height of 42" and I have built my first few of about 30 or more to come that have a width at the top of 14".  I intend to build "modules" in wood (rail and tie) for each section of track (straight or curved) with the intention that they be interchangeable in the event they need to be replaced or replaired.  Now to my question:  What spacing can and should I allow for parallel tracks as I intend to run them that way to the different sections of my half acre berry garden.  I am an organic market gardner growing at present 17 types of berries and will be using the G scale railroad to run the picked pints back to my barn for tempory refrigeration before they go to market.

Cheers,

Jim Stewart 

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Jim,

You are most welcome, and I am glad you enjoyed my posts.  Model Railroading is all about sharing ideas.  Everything I know I learned from fellow modelers.  I have often been inspired when visiting other layouts, no matter how big or small. I seem to learn something new every visit.  See if you can find a local Garden RR club for more inspiration.  Definitely keep linked with our Bachmann Forum. We have a great bunch of guys here who are able to answer most any question you might have.
As for your question, I wonder if your berry baskets will be wider that the gondola cars are. My double tracks are 6 1/2 inches on center. Others feel 7 inches  is better The critical issue is to be sure your berry baskets will pass each other when meeting on the double track.  As for the shay it is a great locomotiveyou will enjoy having.

You seem to have a great plan.  You will never regret having wider curves.  Have fun with your trains!

Bill

[on30gn15]

Hey, a railroad which works for a living, cool, that's what they were born to do! 
Note: Because cars on curves overhang the track - to the outside at their ends - to the inside in their middle - parallel curves require more clearance between tracks than do straights. And the sharper the curve, the greater the required clearance. And that clearance increase needs to start a bit before the actual curve.

Something else which affects model RR track spacing, though mainly in the smaller scales, is if trains stall or derail on parallel tracks, can you get your fingers or hand in between the trains to grab cars or engines to re-rail or remove them?

Though directed at the indoor scale modelers, Kalmbach's book Track Planning for Realistic Operation covers a lot of track geometry issues. Things such as the track center spacing issues mentioned above, S-curves - both on the mainline and at turnouts, grades and grade transitions, and more.
I'd call it well worth spending the twenty-two bucks on.