i am designing a new layout for my new house. My current layot is (was) pretty small so I always was limitedto my choice of Loco’s, mostly 4 axle diesels. Now that I have lots more room I have a design that uses a minimum radius of 24"on one main and 26" on the other. What is the longest Loco that will work comfortably on these. If I use the NMRA standards, I need to stay with what I have, but I know these standards are the ideal situation. I am more intersted in what experiences you have had. I would love to get some AC4400’s, but this may be a stretch?
The AC4400 (Athern) can run on 24" radius, but will look and run a lot better on larger radius.
Watch your turnouts! If you are going to run six axle units then you should use #6 turnouts as a minimum or you are asking for problems. (#8 turnouts would even be better for main line trackage)
Watch your crossovers and “S” curves as the longer units will have lots of problems here too. Again I would use #6 as a minimum with #8 being the best choice.
Jim
As far as I know, in HO anything will run on 24 to 26 inch. I may be wrong as I have mostly worked with smaller narrow guage for a while now.
But a big boy works on 22 inches so I am pretty sure everything will work on 24 or 26.
As for turnouts minimum I would use is #8 myself. But that’s me. Hope this helps.