Hi. I am building a layout 5’ x 12’. Will be using a max of 24" radius and a min of 18" track. My question is will most if not all passenger cars run on my layout or will they have to be run only on the 24" radius track? Thanks in advance.
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Scale? HO then is depends on the type of passenger cars.
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80 ft WILL NOT work on anything less than 30" with body mounted couplers. The “SHORT” 80 ft Rivarossi with the truck mounted will go on 18" radius. Look like heck, but work.
Hope this helps you.
Thanks Yes it is H O
Most 80’ cars with truck mounted couplers (also called Talgo) should work on 24" and some will work on 18" right out of the box. Check the manufacturer’s web site and box as most state their minimum radius. You may be able to modify some 24" ones to work on 18". Appearance suffers and you may have to use slow speeds.
Enjoy
Paul
It depends on how one defines most, but assuming you mean most HO cars on the market today I would say no. Many of the newer nice ones (BLI & Walthers lightweights) will squeek around 22", some require 24". The more toy like ones (older AHM, Rivarossi, and Athearn) should have no problem with the 18" curves because they have couplers mounted on the trucks. As the others have stated check the specifications of the cars to know for certain.
Does the same 24" radius rule apply to N-scale? I am planning to run passenger service and currently have Kato Superliners (truck mounted) and Kato California Zephyr (body mounted).
I plan to use 18" and 16" radius as my benchwork space will be 24" max from the walls. I am following John Armstrong’s squares rule.
I hope to stay within this druther or would have to seriously reconsider. I know there is a balance between operations and appearance and presently I am in the middle.
Jimmy, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Blog: http://mytrainmaster.spaces.live.com
Backtracker, you should use the largest your space will allow. You will be glad you did, as you run the longer equipment you will have more reliability and a better look. Consider using easements, they help more than you think.
jimmylow, I also model in N-scale and run a 17" min. radius. Most of my equipment is diesel exept for a GS4 4-8-4 daylighter train. The cars look ok on the 17" curves but I don’t like the way the loco runs on them. The loco looks like it is always attempting to climb the rails in the curves which cases a bit of an anoying looking wobble. I would go bigger on the next layout but its the only steam loco I have.
I do not know if this will help or not, but here goes. I’ve not built my N layout yet…still trying to come up with a plan I like. Towards that end, the other night, I got out my set of Kato Super Ciefs and gave them a test roll on 15" and 13.75" curves. 15" did not look too bad. At 13.75" the middle of the cars were overhanging past the Kato Unitrack road bed on the inside of the curve…pretty toy-like looking. But even at 13.75", the cars seem to roll smoothly and easily.
I think it is a good idea to roll the cars on various radius to see which is acceptable. My friend built his N-scale with 9 3/4" radius and the overhang was bad. Doubling it to 18" might improve the situation. Again, I will try out.
Thks for your comments, guys. Do give me your feedbacks in my blog.
Jimmy
Spidge, although I have not plans to run steam locos, I do have 6-axle diesel locos in the pipeline. I take your point into consideration. Thks.
I had a layout with 12 radius curves and the six axles were questionable but now on my 17 curves they run and look very good.