Turnouts on curves

ctclark1

Member
I thought I had seen something mentioned a while back, but can't find it now or even remember if I actually ever did see a solution, but since the general consensus has always been that the facing-point side (and typically the straight-lined trailing side) be perfectly in line and straightened, is there a method to get switches on curves to look nice and not screw with the track alignments? The only option I seem to have found is to use extra spline points closely spaced to the turnout spline point and straighten those short sections, but when running a train over it, even in very short instances, the "straight" seems exaggerated (or even jarring, if the alignment is not absolutely perfect).

This is for a proto route, so the other answer of "just don't put your switches on curves, case closed" isn't really an option, and I know I've seen curved switches in real life.
Also please keep in mind this is not simply a case of the "main route being curved" with the siding as a tangent - both lines are curved before and after the turnout in this case.
 
All switch's need at least an extremely short, slightly overlapping, figure 8, spline point pattern, of straightened track, just before the points lead in ... the 2 diverging tracks in the frog can be curved if you want
 
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These are a pain.

I have found that putting in an extra spline point on the diverging line and pulling the track out slightly in that direction keeps the track from bending over each other. The slight pulling and moving of this track is enough to solve the problem, but is not noticeable to user.

John
 
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