Good day to all. Currently in the process of getting back into the hobby after a few years. Looking to create an N scale layout running modern NS equipment. I am looking to run 53’ intermodal well cars as well as some 89’ auto racks. Might even do some excursion style passenger equipment with steam locomotives. Key issue I am running into is finding solid information on what minimum radius would work best. NMRA guidelines say 24" minimum based off the classification systems for the equipment I plan to run. However I know they also say the curve should be 3 times that of your longest car. Calculations for the auto racks came out to be 19ish inch radius in N scale. The other issue I have been running into is track spacing. I plan to run a double track mainline for the layout. Using NMRA guidelines says min spacing should be 1 1/4ish". That spacing seems reasonable to me for main lines. I would however like suggestions for yard spacing since protypically the yards are tighter than the mains. Trying to find a happy medium between practicality and looks.
I’m on my second N scale layout. I have a double mainline around the entire layout, and I used 1¼ inches. I run some long passenger cars, and I have not had any issues.
For a minimum radius, everyone on the forum will say to make it as big as possible, and there’s something to that, since the bigger radius will look better with longer cars. However, I have several 20 inch radii (radiuses?) and they work fine. I was very limited by the size of layout room.
In my yard, I actually used more than 1¼ inches. I’m old and my fingers don’t work as well as they used to. I do a lot of moving cars with my hands, or placing cars on the tracks in the yards, and if my tracks were any closer, I would end up derailing other cars.
What I did works fine for me, but everyone has their own preferences. Also, if you lay some track and it isn’t right, take it out and do it again. For me, that’s all in the process of building a layout.
Have fun, and let us know how you progress with the layout!
There are two things involved here, and I think it is important to keep them separate.
The minimum radius that equipment can traverse without uncoupling or derailing is one thing. Looking reasonably ‘prototypical’ while doing it is another.
As with passenger trains, you want longer curves for appearance (with some transition spiraling in and out of curves to preclude sharp angles at transitions). Where the train can’t be seen (e.g. in tunnels or on a helix) sharper curves can be used subject only to reliable running both in buff and draft.
That seems a bit high for an N-scale minimum radius, are you sure you weren’t looking at the HO info? Traditionally 15-18"R curves in N are considered “broad” curves, roughly equivalent to 30-36"R in HO. (In recent years, it seems the recommended radius in HO has been 22"R for larger freight cars, 24" radius for full-length passenger cars with body mounted couplers.)
Bachmann and Kato make N-scale “click track” that you can use to do a real world test of your equipment and track spacing etc., even if you don’t plan on using them for your permanent layout.
I also thought the 24" minimum seemed high. Had a few N scale sets growing up. All Bachmann easy track. I remember the radii on those specific sets only being like 11 or 12 inches. Turns out I did misread the chart a bit. Its more of a range in the chart for the era and equipment. The equipment could fall into multiple categories. I overlooked this. Range is actually 19-24" for space constraints in the area I would like to build this a 20" min radius is next to perfect.