Figure 8

[Mudratmom]

Can anyone tell me what pieces of n gague ez track I need to do a layout in a figure 8

[Bucksco]

You can do it with the following items:
Item 44840 - 30 degree crossing - 1 ea.
Item 44801 - 11.25" radius curves - you need 21 pieces (they come 6 to a card)
Item 44802 - 11.25" radius curved terminal rerailer - 1 ea.
Item 44829 - Small straight track assortment - you will need 4 pieces of 2.25" straight track (there are 2 in each pack so you need 2 packs).

[James in FL]

HI Mudratmom,

Tell us what locomotive(s) you have and maybe we can offer better advice on radius and crossing degrees. Also how much room do you have for your layout?

Understand, if you build this figure 8 to Administrators recipe, you will be .528 over on each straight leg.
This 1.056 per side will have to be absorbed into those 12 radius joints (per side), creating an outward kink of .088 per joint.
Very sloppy, not sure why the Admin would accept that as OK.
Perhaps he has never run on that configuration. .080+ kink is going to be hard on rail joiners.
I don’t think your lokies and rolling stock are going to like that.
Maybe this is acceptable to Bachmann, I don’t think it would be to most modelers, but you can try it and see if it works to your liking.

All is not lost.
Rather than to use the 2.25 straight sections the Admin recommends, use two .875 sections per straight leg available in the Assorted short connector sections pack p/n 44899.
Problem here is you will need two per leg, or a total of 8 which means you will need to purchase 4 packs (two sections included in each pack).

With this recipe, your straight legs will be 1.750 (1.722 is nominal) so you will be .028 over per leg or .056 over per side.
This too will have to be absorbed into those same 12 joints but the slop will be .0046 over per joint (outward kink) making it much more tolerable to run on.

I can post the trigonometry calculation for you, if you wish to see the math involved.

Good luck