# Questions using SCARM on my track



## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

Hi I am trying out the program and right off I am having an issue finding the track to use in the track selector.

all my curved track is HO either made by
AHM made in Austria marked 2560 18'R
Tyco made in Austria marked 15685 18" R
Atlas Snap Track marked 18"R

all my straight track is made by the same companies and marked 9"

They are all identical and I do not find any of them on the track selector, which one am I supposed to use?

I am trying to make a twice around layout using a 90 degree cross track and no switches or trestles, I see one on the MTH O gauge 2013 catalog page 72 and I want to make one in HO on a sheet of 4x8.
Once I have the layout I can add switches, sidings etc at a latter time. All those dozens of track choices are really confusing to a newbie like me. I just have two kinds of track, curved or straight and they are all the same size, what to do??????


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## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

Use Atlas track. It has the same dimensions. When you get to using switches, there is a bit of an issue (unless it has been fixed) with the geometry of turnout portion of the Atlas snap swiches being exactly right. It's not major and you can work around it if you know about this issue. It mainly means when creating track off of the turnout portion of the switch may not close exactly when connecting up with wherever it is going.

For what you are doing initially, there will be no problem.


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

DavefromMD said:


> Use Atlas track. It has the same dimensions. When you get to using switches, there is a bit of an issue (unless it has been fixed) with the geometry of turnout portion of the Atlas snap swiches being exactly right. It's not major and you can work around it if you know about this issue. It mainly means when creating track off of the turnout portion of the switch may not close exactly when connecting up with wherever it is going.
> 
> For what you are doing initially, there will be no problem.


I am so confused and I am using the Atlas 100 track but all my curved sections are labeled 18" R followed a few ties later by the letter L. The atlas track selector gives me a choice of 18"30dg or 18"15dg or 18"10dg which one do I use? The track pieces are around 9.5 inch long and the straights are 9 inch long. I know mine takes 12 pieces to make a circle


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

Bkubiak said:


> I am so confused and I am using the Atlas 100 track but all my curved sections are labeled 18" R followed a few ties later by the letter L. The atlas track selector gives me a choice of 18"30dg or 18"15dg or 18"10dg which one do I use? The track pieces are around 9.5 inch long and the straights are 9 inch long. I know mine takes 12 pieces to make a circle


Still cannot make it work, on the O gauge layout I see all the curved pieces are 45 degree and it takes two sections to turn 90 degrees, on the HO track I have it takes 3 sections to turn 90 degrees. Does anyone have a layout idea to help me out that will give me two turns around a 4 x 8 without a trestle and just using a 90 degree crossing. My thought was that two turns around will make the layout seem much bigger


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## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

The 18R is 18 inch radius. This is the most common sectional track curve. It takes 6 of these to make a half circle.

In SCARM the 18 30 degree is what you want. The degrees in SCARM on a curve track relate to how much of a corner the piece of track makes. There are 180 degrees in a half circle. It takes 6 of these sections to make a half circle, thus each section is 30 degrees (6 * 30 = 180).

The 18 inch 15 degree is an 18 inch radius half section of curve. It takes 2 of these to make one full section. The 18 inch 10 degree is a 1/3 section of curve. Takes 3 of these to make a full section.


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

DavefromMD said:


> The 18R is 18 inch radius. This is the most common sectional track curve. It takes 6 of these to make a half circle.
> 
> In SCARM the 18 30 degree is what you want. The degrees in SCARM on a curve track relate to how much of a corner the piece of track makes. There are 180 degrees in a half circle. It takes 6 of these sections to make a half circle, thus each section is 30 degrees (6 * 30 = 180).
> 
> The 18 inch 15 degree is an 18 inch radius half section of curve. It takes 2 of these to make one full section. The 18 inch 10 degree is a 1/3 section of curve. Takes 3 of these to make a full section.


Thanks that info helps a lot back to the program


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