Does anyone know the minimum radii these cars http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-39813 will operate on?
Had a look on the site but it dosent mention it!
Are the trucks fixed on the model or will they turn on curves?
Gary,
The truck is part of the car body; it doesn’t turn. There’s no need for it to turn since there’s only a single axle under each end of the car. I don’t own any of these cars, but I’d be willing to bet they could handle a radius as tight as 18".
Don Z.
Thanks Don.
Funily enough i just dug out my H0 scale rule to get an idea of the lenght of these cars. , if the it was loaded with a 48" trailer it makes the car carrying it only about 8" long max. My minimum radii is 24" so they ought to be fine.
I actually have a few of these. They will run on the 18" radius, but the 22" is a much better fit.
They can be placed stationary on any curve down to 11" (I have such sectional track from Marklin), but anything less than 28" (I used Bachmann sectional track in 18* segments to try it out) is prone to derailment. The minimum radius where flanges stopped grinding and trying to climb the rail is 35.75" (German Piko R9 curve with 908mm radius). Safe push-pull when this car was compressed by heavy consist on both sides was achieved on Roco R20 (1962mm or 76") radius. Very impractical car to run on compact layouts.
I also have a few of these. I have 24" radius, no problems, I run mine at the end of a train, because thay can be prone to derailments if heavy train is placed behind them, just like the prorotype.
Mike.
What I am finding - rail code really affects the radius too: wider rail such as coarse Code 100 means flanges grind all the way up to 60", finer Code 83 rail - much better performance on 28" curves, when substituted Bachmann EZ track 28" Code 100 with same radius of Micro Engineering track. So I partially take my words back, but any track imperfection even something little like rail quality will do it.
I used to have four of them but backdated and sold them. I always heard the minimum radius was a lot higher than one would assume for such a short car due to the single axles.
I ran them at the end of a train, much for same reason the prototypes did. I only have 4 or 5.
I don’t run them any more, again, much the same as the prototypes. [swg] I should put them on Ebay with some outdated trailers. They seem to sell.
Mike.