Templot track plan tutorial page 2

Page 2. Click here to skip this page : next page

screen 11:

As requested, Templot created a crossover (screen 11). The original turnout current template was copied to the background (showing here in green and blue), and a new turnout current template was created to form a crossover with it (showing here in brown and black). Note that this new turnout is still left-hand. In forming a crossover between running lines the two turnouts are always of the same hand. This is obvious when the running lines are straight, but it is not so obvious when they are curved.

If you look in your storage box ( control > storage box menu item or alternatively CTRL-O (letter O, not zero) on the keyboard), you will see the first template is now stored there. It is showing numbered in red to signify that it is not only stored, but that it has also been copied to the drawing pad as a background template and as such is part of your track plan.

Don't get confused - the first turnout is now part of your track plan, but the second one is still only the current template, and it isn't, yet, part of the plan.

All the tools menu items which have the word make in their title behave similarly, i.e. they first do a store & background operation on your existing current template, which conveniently saves you having to remember to do this. But if you have previously done so anyway, you will now have duplicate background templates superimposed. Simply click anywhere on them and then click the delete item on the pop-up menu which appears, to remove the lowermost one.

You will see that the background template also has a name label, showing its name and also its storage box number: "1 engine release crossover - main". Templot puts this label near the centre of the template. Often this is a nuisance, obstructing a clear view of the design. It is easy easy to move the labels, and I have frequently done so in preparing these screenshots. Simply click on the template (or hold down the SHIFT key and click on the label), and then click the move name label item on the pop-up menu. Then you can drag the label to a new position.

We would now like to look a little closer at the mid-point of this crossover. So click either of the zoom rectangle buttons (marked). They go yellow as shown. Then click down approximately at the position shown arrowed in red, and then drag the mouse towards the bottom right to create the zoom rectangle shown.

screen 12:

When the mouse button is released the drawing pad zooms in to show the area of the rectangle in closer detail (screen 12). You will find this method of zooming-in very useful and use it often. Click either of the minus buttons shown to zoom out again or press the MINUS (SUBTRACT) key on the keyboard NUMBER-PAD.

If you simply click without dragging a rectangle, the pad will zoom in to the maximum extent centred on the clicked location. This can be useful occasionally, but may catch you out the first time. Just zoom back out repeatedly.

We can see that the timbering at the mid-point of the crossover is still in its "raw" state, with untidy conflicts and overlapping timbers. We shall come back later to sort this out using the shove timber functions (adjust > shove timbers menu item). There is little sense in doing this yet, because there is a fair chance that we shall be changing these templates before our plan is finalised. For the present we are concerned only with the rail alignments.

screen 13:

Screen 13: Instead of simply zooming back out, we can click the pad > pad view options > fit background templates menu item to zoom and adjust the pad view sufficiently to see all of the track plan (including the current template). As before for the current template only (screen 6), it is usually much quicker to use the keyboard shortcut for this (SHIFT-F12), or even quicker to simply press the single-key alternative, which in this case is the `¬ key (top-left, below ESC) . You will also use this function often.

screen 14:

Here's the result in screen 14. We have our engine release crossover.

One aspect of Templot to understand is the concept of a negative curving line radius.
In a conventional curved turnout, as in the first turnout in this crossover (screen 14), the main-road side of the turnout curves in the same direction as the hand of the turnout, or in other words both the main-road and the turnout-road curve the same way. This is a left-hand turnout. The main road along the platform also curves to the left (viewed from the switch blade tips), so the curving line radius in the main road is positive (+2640 mm).
In the newly-created second turnout however, although this is still a left-hand turnout (as shown in the information panel and by looking at the track centre-line marks), the main road now curves in the opposite direction, to the right when viewed from the blade tips, producing a Y-effect turnout. So in this case the curving line radius is negative, and is showing as such in the mouse action panel (-2587.33 mm). To make negative figures more noticeable, Templot always shows them in square brackets like this [ -2587.33 ].
Generally it is easy to spot when turnouts have negative curving, because they are always Y-turnouts with varying degrees of "Y-ness". But plain track is also handed and can have a negative curving radius similarly by being curved in the opposite direction to the hand. See screen 23 later for more about this.
tech-chat: Ignoring the plus and minus symbols, we notice that the absolute difference between these two radii is 2640-2587.33=52.67 mm, which is the turnout-side adjacent track spacing dimension which we specified earlier. In creating this crossover, Templot has automatically ensured that the running lines remain concentric or "parallel".

But as you can see the the loop line is heading off towards 2 o'clock. We are not happy about this, and decide to pull the turnout down. So having checked that the red fixing peg is in position to maintain the alignment with the first turnout, press the F6 function key on the keyboard for the curving mouse action.

It will soon become second nature to check the position of the fixing peg before performing a mouse action. If it is not positioned to lock the current template to the existing track, you will lose that alignment. (CTRL-U undo changes to let you move the peg and try again).

screen 15:

Screen 15: Using the F6 curving mouse action we now pull the curving radius down to something nearer to that which we had in mind, while keeping an eye on the minimum radius figure in the information panel. We settle on a curving line (main road) radius of 6765 mm (approx) (22ft approx) which for this REA B-7 turnout produces a minimum turnout radius of 1327 mm (52"), which is acceptable.

Note that the curving line radius is now positive - in other words the main road of the turnout now curves in the same direction as the hand.

screen 16:

Now in screen 16 click the tools > make double-track TS menu item to put this turnout on the background and generate an adjacent turnout-side plain track current template to form the main platform line. This will be concentric with our 22ft curving line radius in the turnout, and hence line up perfectly with the first template.

screen 17:

Screen 17 shows the result. We now have 2 background templates forming a complete crossover and a short length of plain track as the current template which is an embryo platform line. But we have forgotten to give the second turnout a name - it is showing as "no-name". It is easy to end up with a storage box full of templates all called no-name, leading to great confusion. So before going any further we will name it.

screen 18:

Click anywhere on the no-name template (screen 18). It becomes highlighted and a pop-up menu appears on the left of the screen offering us several options for this single selected background template. Click background pop-up to read about these options, and other ways of accessing this menu.

Click the rename... menu item, and call this template "engine release crossover - loop".

screen 19:

As our track plan becomes larger, the printed page outlines become more obtrusive (showing here as mauve dotted lines). We are not yet ready to do any template printing, so their presence is unnecessary at this stage. Click the pad > pad grid options > page outlines off menu item to remove them (screen 19).

Click here to continue on the next page. To revert to this page use your browser's Back button.

back to the start • text-only version • other tutorials • getting started with Templot • Templot main page