Hi all,
I have very limited space and made the huge mistake of laying down 18" radius curves. I have always wanted to run modern Amtrak equitment but I can’t find anything that will take these tight curves (coupled together). I have heard walters amfleet and their superliner cars will work but I have never seen it myself. If anyone can give me information I would appreciate it. [:D]
The Walthers cars might make it around 18" curves, but barely.
I have 22" curves & even I consider this a bare minimum for Walthers Budd cars.
Try to widen your curves to at least 22" to get away from the problem you’re going to have with 18" curves. I did.
Gordon
Gordon,
Thanks for the reply, but there is really no way I can widen my curves until I get my own house (I’m still in high school). What about the walthers superliner cars? Are you saying that the walthers amfleet cars will make it around 18" curves or will they derail too much to make it worth wild.
hi,
I have no experience with the walthers cars, but i do have a train of athearn amtrak cars that run just fine on my 18" curves. Now they are 72’ cars, but untill i have a layout with lager curves these are pritty much all the pasenger equitment im planing on running.
~matt
I tried the Budd cars on an 18" curve on my layout & they barely made it.
Gordon
I never thought about athearn cars, I had no idea athearn made amtrak rolling stock. I still want to know for sure if the walthers cars can make it but I might have to settle for athearn, which is okay… for now. [:)]
Gordon, what do you mean by “barely”?
Barely as in the shells of the cars were touching & I pulled these cars through that curve at a crawl.
I have a bunch of the Athearn cars as well, these work well on 18" curves
Gordon
18" R curves are not your best friend nor are they your worst enemy. I used to have them on my layout before I upgraded to 22"R curves. Believe me, several times I have ran Walthers 89’ Auto Racks on 18"R Curves with no problems. I have also ran Amtrak cars on 18"R curves with no problems. I’m not advising for or against changing your track to a larger radius, I am just simply saying that you can get a lot of things to work on 18"R curves that you didn’t think would work. By all means go on ahead and buy your Amtrak Cars and just see if they work.
Is the detailing decent on the athearn cars? I couldn’t find very good pictures them. I don’t care too much about the realism of my railroad but I don’t want it to look like a toy.
John, for the $ for an Athearn car, they are not bad.
They have the same realism of their freight cars.
Gordon
My problem is I can’t just buy a car and try it out on my layout very easily. The nearest hobby shop is 50 miles away and I am on a tight budget. I think I’ll just get the athean cars and see if I can make them a little bit more realistic, after all they are the least expensive I’ve seen
Thanks for all the replies
I used to run the Athearn Amtrak cars, and liked them alot. If your hobby shop doesnt have them try ebay for them.
I understand the tight budget thing (As I am on one myself), and settlin for an 18: radius (22" in a tunnel) due to my small layout. I purchased a Walthers Heavyweight, and with a little tinkering with the screws on the trucks (loosening them), and following their advice to trim a little bit of detail on the bottom it runs great.
If you really want the Walthers fleet, I would even try to email or walther’s customer service and see if they have any recommendations to make them run on 18" radius.
COULDN"T HURT!
DON
Lifelike passenger cars are very short, and pretty inexpensive, but i don’t know the quality, detail etc, but they are an option.
Thanks Don,
I think I’m going to purchase a couple walthers cars and try to get the cars to go around my tiny curves. If that doesn’t work I’ll just settle for the athearn cars. I already tried the bachman amfleet cars and they didn’t come close to working. [banghead]
I have heard the lifelike models don’t look very good, but that’s just what some one told me.
Well if lifelike cars don’t look good you could make em’ lool good!!
Alright, first off, don’t touch the Life-Like cars with a 10 foot pole, the Athearns are far better and can be made to look passibly real without a great amount of work.
I’ve run Walthers Amfleets on the 18" curve on my test track and they do it well enough, it doesn’t look very realistic but they can make it if you keep it slow and have laid good track. Because of the stress placed on the wheels by arching the car that much, any imperfection will result in derailment.
Next, the only modern superdetailed coach I’m aware of that was made with 18" radius in mind are the Kato business car, it has a part of the truck frame that can be removed in order for the car to make the curve.
Personally when it comes to designing a layout for passenger service (as the commuter layout I’m designing is) the larger the mainline curves the better. I’d like to keep a minimum at 30" with it.
As for non-Amtrak cars you could try the new Walthers Trainline ones, I’ve heard they’re shorter and look nice.
Another considderation is the length of your engine. Don’t run an E8 when an F7 would work well. For now I’d advise you to keep the locomotives short as well. For Amtrak, don’t get E8s, P40s or P42s, instead focus on engines like the F7s, F40s, F59s and P32s.
Cheers Mates!
~METRO
What’s wrong with P42s? They run well on 18" curves and they are one of the most modern amtrak engines out there.
What about the Model Power coaches? I’ve seen these as 4-car packs and they looked ok for the money.
I think the problem with the P42 isn’t so much running as appearance - it’ll take an 18in curve but might not look too good doing so!
I would switch to a 22’’ radius if you aren’t too far ahead on your railroad. 18’s are usually only used in small sections definatly not the entire track. Good luck!
I think he’s refering to the looks more than the operation. Yes, they probably will work on 18 inch radius, but because they are long, they have a lot of overhang. They’ll also cause trouble with cars equipped with talgo (truck mounted) couplers on such tight curves. For better looks, stay with the Athearn cars pulled by an F7. Although not the most modern, they’ll look and operate better on the tight curves. Talgo truck cars and locos were originally designed to operate on these train set curves.
As far as Walthers Superliner cars, I wouldn’t recommend it on those curves. They have body mounted couplers, although set up for a slight side swing, they give me trouble on a 22 inch radius curve. Also, since they’re scale length, you’ll have the same overhang problem as the P42’s.