I'm in the planning stages of my layout, and folks here on the forum have been hugely helpful with my questions... so here's another one.
I've been planning exclusively around Aristocraft wide-radius switches, for several reasons -- not the least of which is that their 5' radius is what I had already been planning for as a minimum radius overall.
But here's the rub. Wanting to ensure adequate space & arrangement (esp in yards), I poked around for a more detailed dimensional diagram of those switches. It was in metric; and had no radius called out. So I put it in AutoCAD, and added the Imperial dimensions:
![Image]()
The surprise was that the centerline radius was about 50" -- much closer to 4 feet than 5! I figured I must have something way wrong, so I wrote to AristoCraft the following:
>Hello, I am planning an extensive layout base on your WR switches (about 50 of them).
>I have always understood this product to be 5' in radius. However, in looking more closely at the geometry, it seems that something is odd.
>Please see the attached figure; it demonstrates that the dimensions produce a 50" radius — dramatically different than 60".
>Am I misunderstanding something? Maybe this is the wrong set of starting dimensions for your WR product? If so, could you provide me a
>diagram of what the actual geometry is? Please help; I've put many weeks into my layout design; and now that we
>are building retaining walls and such, a misunderstanding like this might be a very painful one on my end.
>Thanks much, and sincerely, Cliff Jennings
Now, guess what they wrote back? Only this:
>All of our track is metric, but we state it in feet causing differences. We were metric to be compatible with LGB, but Americans do not accept metric. By a sample one in advance and build around the sample.
>Aristo
Now, I've read Greg Adam's excellent article, "Tips - A-C Wide Radius Switches" http://ovgrs.editme.com/WRSwitch ; but now I'm wondering if AC mis-labels even their 5' radius sectional curves? And is otherwise sloppy in things dimensional, since we "Americans do not accept metric"?
Anyway, does anyone have a real diagram? If not, I guess I'll just buy the thing... but maybe now from LGB!
I've been planning exclusively around Aristocraft wide-radius switches, for several reasons -- not the least of which is that their 5' radius is what I had already been planning for as a minimum radius overall.
But here's the rub. Wanting to ensure adequate space & arrangement (esp in yards), I poked around for a more detailed dimensional diagram of those switches. It was in metric; and had no radius called out. So I put it in AutoCAD, and added the Imperial dimensions:
The surprise was that the centerline radius was about 50" -- much closer to 4 feet than 5! I figured I must have something way wrong, so I wrote to AristoCraft the following:
>Hello, I am planning an extensive layout base on your WR switches (about 50 of them).
>I have always understood this product to be 5' in radius. However, in looking more closely at the geometry, it seems that something is odd.
>Please see the attached figure; it demonstrates that the dimensions produce a 50" radius — dramatically different than 60".
>Am I misunderstanding something? Maybe this is the wrong set of starting dimensions for your WR product? If so, could you provide me a
>diagram of what the actual geometry is? Please help; I've put many weeks into my layout design; and now that we
>are building retaining walls and such, a misunderstanding like this might be a very painful one on my end.
>Thanks much, and sincerely, Cliff Jennings
Now, guess what they wrote back? Only this:
>All of our track is metric, but we state it in feet causing differences. We were metric to be compatible with LGB, but Americans do not accept metric. By a sample one in advance and build around the sample.
>Aristo
Now, I've read Greg Adam's excellent article, "Tips - A-C Wide Radius Switches" http://ovgrs.editme.com/WRSwitch ; but now I'm wondering if AC mis-labels even their 5' radius sectional curves? And is otherwise sloppy in things dimensional, since we "Americans do not accept metric"?
Anyway, does anyone have a real diagram? If not, I guess I'll just buy the thing... but maybe now from LGB!
