Question about Williams 60' passenger cars through figure eights.

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

Can the Williams 60’ Madison cars and 60’ Luxury Liners run through a classic O-31 figure eight without running into themselves?

I don’t have any experience with cars that are this long.

Thanks,
Birds

2

Strange idea, but did you measure the length of the train and the length of the track?

TomS

3

Yes and No. How many cars are you talking about?

4

Measure the length of your train, then measure the length of half the figure eight and see if you have enuff room or do you need to expand your figure eight?
Lee Fritz

5

Four cars.

I measured the track length and came up with 71.75 inches. The 15.5 inch Madisons are 62 inches for four, and the 16 inch Luxury Liners are 64 inches for four. That leaves between 7 and 9 inches for engines if you just go by lengths.

but those measurements doesn’t take into account that the Madisons and Luxury Liners will overhang the curves - effectively shortening the length of the train as it goes around a curve.

Currently I run five 12 inch streamliners (60 inches) through and there are a couple inches to spare when pulled by a traditional sized A/A Alco diesel pulling it. If I have a longer steamer and tender it will be tight.

So I was looking for some real world experience since I know the cars overhang the curves and that this makes a longer train a bit shorter as it goes around cuves.

6

I can’t help but think that 15" cars are going to look awful with the overhang around o31.

7

The important thing is the distance between the center bearings (the truck pivots). The length of track that each car uses will increase by the amount 2r asin(d/2r) - d, where r is the track radius (14.142 inches) and d is the distance between the center bearings. For various values of d in inches, those increases are
7–.074
8–.111
9–.159
10–.221
11–.298
12–.393
13–.508
You can see that the increase is not too serious.

8

Bob,

Thanks a lot for the information and for providing the list of distances. Is arcsin the same as inverse sine?

Thanks again.

Birds