Aristocraft Curves

[DRG11]

Hi All,

I have inherited some very large aristicraft curves from a late friends railway..is there any way to find out what size thei are as i cannot find any nunbers on them ?
Ther are 8 in all so loks to be half a circle ?

Many thanks to you all

 

[Tony]

Hi
count the sleepers and then have a look on jeremys site at his pictures
http://www.dragon-gscale.co.uk/aristo-craft-156-c.asp
Tony

 

[steve parberry]

aristo curves are very hard to establish
best thing is to join them all up and then put a tape across the half circle

 

[DRG11]

Thankyou for the ideas,
If i put them together it will have to be outside as way to large in the house..oh deary me !!

cheers

 

[GrahamMills]

As Steve has indicated it is very hard to tell and it is not helped by AristoCraft sometimes producing 16 to a circle and at others 18.
The sleeper count should help but there is of course the variation between Europeans and American sleepers.

I have been meaning to go down the sleeper count route. Must do some counting this weekend.

 

[bobg]

There is a way to calculate the radius of a circle from a small part of it, say two or three pieces of track. I haven't got the formula to hand but it works like this.... measure a set distance straight across the curve (a cord), perhaps a couple of feet, and measure the off-set i.e. the distance from the centre of that cord to the curve. It is then possible to work out from that the radius. I'm sure the exactitudes can be found in Google.

 

[GrahamMills]

There is a way to calculate the radius of a circle from a small part of it, say two or three pieces of track. I haven't got the formula to hand but it works like this.... measure a set distance straight across the curve (a cord), perhaps a couple of feet, and measure the off-set i.e. the distance from the centre of that cord to the curve. It is then possible to work out from that the radius. I'm sure the exactitudes can be found in Google.

The main problem with that technique is that you need to measure across the middle of the track where there is a space. I guess that you could measure the inside and outside rail lengths and average the two figures. It should be possible with only one piece of track but your measurements need to be very accurate since errors will multiple. Obviously easier with several pieces of the same curved track but then by the time you get to 3 or 4 you probably have a quarter circle which should be easy to measure. Having said that when I tried it I found it hard to tell if I had 10' or 11' diameter curves :

I just counted the sleepers on my AristoCraft 15' curves and got 32 whereas my 10' curves have 25 sleepers. However I have a box that claims to hold 10' curves and the number of sleepers is 28.
Theorectically they are all European sleepers. :thinking:

 

[bobg]

Graham, measure only the inside rail and add half the gauge to the end result, the circle centre for both rails is the same. Yes you do need to be reasonably accurate with the measuring but there will only be so many radiuses supplied by Accucraft you should be able to determine which one is closest to your result.

 

[Rhinochugger]

There is a way to calculate the radius of a circle from a small part of it, say two or three pieces of track. I haven't got the formula to hand but it works like this.... measure a set distance straight across the curve (a cord), perhaps a couple of feet, and measure the off-set i.e. the distance from the centre of that cord to the curve. It is then possible to work out from that the radius. I'm sure the exactitudes can be found in Google.

Good thinking, that's how they lay curved tracks in the 1:1 world - offsets from a chord.

Well, they don't know that's how they do it any more 'cos they just key the data into a computer on the side of the Theodolite or even more advanced electronic thingamyjig, and it does the work for them. But in my day, when setting out roads, that's how we did it (end of old fart rumblings)

 

[DRG11]

Just counted the sleepers and these have 43 sleepers so its looking like it could be 16 foot (32 for 15 foot from Graham)

Mamy thanks gents & Lasses !

 

[DRG11]

I have found out that these are indeed 20 foot diameter curves !

Many thanks for all your help