I have the ever present Lionel '88 re-issue of the Hiawatha, and I was wondering if anyone ever offered lengthened drawbars between the engine and tender to negotiate tighter radius curves? I realize the cars are a nonstarter as far as anything tighter than 072(??), but my engine derails on 031’s due to the tender and loco meeting by accident (I thought I read that the loco / tender should negotiate 031’s, but I could be mistaken). Honestly, the engine doesn’t sound nor look fully happy on my 042’s either…
I love the set and obviously want to run it, but my layout just doesn’t have the square footage to add a 072 loop for the full setup, so I figured an engine / tender (only) run is better than nothing!
Um, well, since no-one else has ventured an opinion, here’s mine for what it’s worth.
When a toy train manufacturer specifies a minimum radius it’s best to take them at their word. 072 means 072 unfortunately and there probably isn’t a whole lot you can do about it.
A suggestion: How about an outdoor layout for your Hiawatha? There’s corrosion-proof trackage available from several manufacturers so “outdoor” isn’t as scary as it sounds. Go outdoors and space shouldn’t be a worry.
By the way, I saw an original Hiawatha set at a train show several years ago. I was amazed at how big it was! Biggest O gauge train I’ve ever seen!
It might be that the only thing holding back the Hiawatha from tighter curves is the drawbar. Why not try some experimenting? Tie a string around the hook and through the slot to lengthen things a bit and give it a run. The 4-4-2 arrangement certainly makes negotiating tighter curves a distinct possibility. Fabricating a new , longer draw bar shouldn’t be all that hard if you find this works.