I think 12 inch radius is minimum for most engines.

@@duane219 great as I have table 2.6 x 4

I used flex track. The layout is 24x96 inches. So the radius is about 11 inches.

@@duane219 Thanks!

Downtown Minneapolis.

YES, YOU ARE RIGHT, NOT ENOUGH DRAFT FOR THE SHIPS AND BARGES THAT COME THRU

Frisco

Maybe during late summer in a drought. They had to close the dams up River to make this happen. I live on the Ohio River and it has more average volume flow than this and it makes up a little over half of the Mississippi.

Great Northern

I use Peco brand switches/turnouts. They snap solidly left or right nicely. Switches are made up of a straight piece and a curved piece. The larger the # number, the larger radius the switch is. I say main line rail should be #6 or greater. Smaller # for yard rails.

@@duane219 , any preference for Insulfrog vs. Electrofrog? One is more expensive, but do i need it? Thanks.

The layout is 24 inches wide, so the radius is about 9.5 to 10 inches. This is not big enough. I have a couple locos that will not go around those curves. I should have made the layout 28 or 30 inches wide. I have the track wired in blocks that can be turned on and off. Each block has a DPDT switch so in the center position it is off. In the right position the right controller operates that block and in the left another controller operates. This way I can have two trains running at the same time. The layout is designed such that it has two loops. The trains can go between loops also, which takes some interesting switching.

@@duane219 Thank you Duane219. As a newbie I have looked up the DPDT switches and now understand how they work. So each block is wired to a dpdt switch which is then wired to both controllers. I saw you made a 55 second video with a picture of your track layout elevations. Would it be possible to show on that picture where each block starts and stops? That would be extremely helpful to me and other newbies I'm sure. And finally, do you wire one side of all track to a common wire and use plastic track joiners to separate the blocks? Thank you soooo much for your expertise and time to help this newbie. Thank you sir!

I will work on adding block indicators on my diagram and post that later. I do not wire one side to a common. Yes I use the clear plastic rail joiners to isolate the blocks.

The grades are more than I would like but they are no problem for a good engine. I have a couple lighter weight engines that cannot pull a long train but do fine with a few cars.

The track in Atla 80 flex track. The turnouts are Peco 80 #6.

Of course. Why would I say so if not?

2x8 feet.

I added a short video showing the track plan.

@@duane219 Thx

The grades are to go from one to the other and back as needed. I am able to run two trains at once, one on each level. Also the two trains can exchange levels.