HO #5 turnouts straight lengths, diversion specs

Started by Holdenout, March 06, 2016, 07:14:54 PM

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Holdenout

Hello,
My question relates specifically to the HO 44133 NS EZ Track Command #5 Right Hand Turnout (DCC On Board), and its counterpart, 44132, which is the left-hand turnout:

Despite having a father who's a model railroad fanatic (now in his 60s -and building a live steam Mikado from "scratch"), I am a full-on rookie and mom helping my nine-year-old son with his 4' x 8' HO layout. My husband built the wood platform/table for the layout, but he's more a rookie than I am, with respect to model railroads and the current task.

We have a printed layout to work from as a base plan, but it's not the final plan. Id like my son like experiment with different configurations before committing, and I have a layout-planning program that will enable us to do that.  The program comes ready-loaded with track sets from several manufacturers, but Bachmann isn't one of them(!), so I'm adding the Bachmann track options individually. So far, it's been fairly easy to do, but the turnouts are proving to be a major hindrance in finishing the set due to their unknown parameters.  

For starters, I'm trying to figure out the length of the straight portions of the turnout, and the angle (in degrees) for the curved portion of the diversion.    Is the curve's arc/angle 30 deg (as a 12th of a 18"r circle), a 22.5 deg arc (as a 16th of a 22"r), or a 12deg arc (like a 16th of a 33.25"r), etc. I'm able to either find, or calculate from "knowns" , the specs for all other Bachmann HO track segments (whether straight or curved), but I'm not able to find the specs for the DCC turn out #5 - L (44132) or R (44133)

All all straight and curved pieces (w/differing lengths and/or radii) are now added(!), BUT...to add the turnouts, the program needs the following parameters:

1) straight length (in); 2) straight dev. length (in)--I'm thinking this is the straight end at the end of the curved diversion?; 3) curve radius (in); 4) curve angle (deg arc, described above); and lastly 5) start point (in). I assume the "start point" is the distance from the piece's base (single-track end) to the point where it starts diverting.

I'm having a hard time finding this information, and although I've found a few useful (yet seemingly conflicting) tid-bits in discussion forums, I've not found the specific parameters I seek.

Hopefully I'm not asking rediculous questions due to some lack of understanding at a really basic level, but I really want to add the turnouts as track options in this program. Any help you could provide is greatly appreciated.  

Thanks!

Len

A #5 frog angle should be 11.25degs, but the diverging track is straight, not curved like a 'Standard' switch. The EZ-Track #5 has a diverging angle of 12degs, probably for manufacturing reasons, but it's "close enough".

Len
If at first you don't succeed, throw it in the spare parts box.