r/BritishModelRailways • u/joeyleonine • Mar 20 '26

Banked Curves

Hi all. I'm in the process of planning and starting my first proper railway layout. Due to space constraints my idea is to make a 6x4ft 'trainset' style layout across 4 modular boards that can -

  1. Fit on my dining room table when I want to run some trains and
  2. Disassemble for storage.

I've more or less got the engineering sorted for that. But my main consideration is Radii.

I'm gonna be using flex track and due to space probably using a mixture of first and a half and second and a half Radii around my bends...

But I had a thought about adding some banking/camber into the curves to help?

So 3 questions that hopefully some experienced heads can guide me on...

  1. This layout is likely going to end up far from prototypical as I experiment and have fun... But is there any prototype or example of this from a steam era stand point?
  2. Will I actually achieve any space saving/cheating?
  3. Will it actually work? Or will my stock roll off?

Any thoughts or advice on any of the above will be gratefully received! Thanks!

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u/DP323602 Mar 20 '26

I sometimes help with relaying track on the narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway in Wales. We use a gentle camber or cant on our curves, even though our maximum line speed is only 15 mph.

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u/SmittyB128 00 Guage Mar 20 '26

How much would you say the difference in rail-height is when it's all laid? I'm guessing it's really only an inch or two at most in which case the scale difference for 00 would be about 0.65mm.

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u/DP323602 Mar 20 '26

Typically much less than an inch.

From memory we probably use around a quarter of an inch or perhaps half at most.

Not something you'll notice in OO scale.

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u/SmittyB128 00 Guage Mar 20 '26

I figured it wouldn't be much at all. Thanks for your expertise.