gap between tracks?

[wee_peem]

Hi there,
I know this question will most likely have been answered many times over, and is simply a maths problem.

What is a realistic gap between tracks....either in mm or inches.

Cheers
Peem

[hairyhandedfool]

In real life the tracks are usually approximately 6ft or 10ft from rail to rail depending on what tracks you are talking about, these are ofcourse what is supposed to be and may vary by location, proximity to tunnels, bridges and stations (in use or otherwise), and other factors.

'The 6ft' is the distance between two running lines (two tracks), and would measure at about 1 inch in OO gauge.

TRACK___6ft___TRACK

'The 10ft' is usually the distance between two sets of running lines (four tracks), and would measure out at approximately 1.6 inches in OO gauge.

TRACK___6ft___TRACK___10ft___TRACK___6ft___TRACK

There are exceptions to these though, the southern end of the East Coast Mainline for example, has the two centre (Fast) lines closer together (6ft) than the outer (Slow) lines (10ft). Generally, where there are only three tracks, one will be 6ft away from the centre track, the other 10ft.

Tracks are never less than these distances, but often more. Hope that helps.

[Flashbang]

Originally Posted by wee_peem

Hi there,
I know this question will most likely have been answered many times over, and is simply a maths problem.

What is a realistic gap between tracks....either in mm or inches.

Cheers
Peem

Hi
Do you mean real or model railway by the term "Realistic"?

HHF has answered the real railways spacing - just to add the two outer sides of the outer most tracks is called the 'Cess'. So you get... Cess_TRACK_/-etc-/_TRACK_Cess
In model form it depends on the gauge being used and in "OO"/"HO" whether Setrack or Streamline etc is used.
For example, in Setrack (Hornby, Peco, Bachmann etc) the distance between the centres of of two adjacent running lines is 67mm, but if you use Streamline or similar the centres are reduced to a more prototypical distance that being 50mm centre to centre.