how many of you have bought bachmann’s 4-6-0 or 2-10-0 HO scale locomotives? how well do they run on say 18 to 20 inch radius track? i want to buy a big enough steam locomotive for my ficitional leelanau county railway big enough to pull say 20 cars but not too big that the locomotive would look out of place on two short of a curve. the ones i have are 18" but culd probaly go with 20" ones.
Both will get around a 18" radius curve(maybe with the drawbar in the last hole). As far as ‘pulling’ capacity:
o - My 4-6-0 will handle about 7-8 cars up my 2.75% grade. It may handle 20 cars on the level, but suspect you might have some wheel slippage.
o - My 2-10-0 will handle about 8-9 cars on that same grade. It is a very small 2-10-0(built for the Russian railroad system).
Both run very smooth, and the detail is 1st rate.
Jim
Our ten wheelers easily traverse 15" curves.
They pull 2 MDC OT boxcars up a 5% grade on an 18" turn. Two of them in tandem will pull 5 boxcars or 5 shorty gondolas with loads and a bobber caboose up the same grade.