Im building a Burlington Northern layout in Ho scale and i want to have an intermodal train with doublestack cars so what is the min. radius for these cars so i can plan it now instead of screwing up later. Appreciate it[:D]
24 inch and up for long cars
You didn’t indicate how long the containers are (i.e. 48’, 53’ etc…). I have run 48’ container cars on 22" radius curves and even 53’ container cars. It isn’t the most optimal but it will work.
I’d stick to the 24 inch minimum. I run intermodal equipment and find some of the well car sets, three and five car, are hard pressed to get around anything less than 24’s. They tend to run out of play on their drawbars. I’ve adjusted a few to give them a bit more travel.
I’ve also noticed the railroads stacking 53’s on top of 48’s on 48 foot well cars. There is actually enough clearance to do this on adjacent cars. Haven’t tried it on the layout, I’m not sure I have any 53 foot containers. Sounds like I need to visit the LHS!
Tilden
Thanks for the info i really needed to know before i screwed up and as for length im going to go with the 48’ i want to keep these cars as short as i can so i wont have to worry as much about overhang.
The radius that well cars can take depends on the brand name as much as anything else.
I have Athearn cars that will negotiate a 22 inch radius with little problem, but I had some from Walthers that wouldn’t, even after I cut away some of the center sill to allow the trucks to swivel.
I don’t know if newer Walthers products are the same, but I’m not going to purchase any more to find out.
In order to appear realistic, you need as large a radius as you can possibly install.
Cacole, wait till you start “adjusting” A-Line’s. Or worse, have the connecting bar break and have to fabricate a new one. Now that’s fun!!!
Tilden
All mine run fine on 22", athearn and walthers old and new cars are no problem. This also includes drawbar and unit trains.
Hey Texas Zephyr, I think Sunset has some of that “Perfect” circle trackage you were talking about last week!!!
Gotta get me some of that stuff…[:P]
On my N scale layout, I found a difference in brands. They would all handle the track curvature, but the Walthers cars were a bit wider and would rub on bridges and tunnel portals with curved track leading to them. On my Cornerstone 19" curved trestles, they would hit the fire barrels and derail. My DI articulated well cars had no problems with the same track.
Here is my here-we-go-again-response to your here-we-go-again-question.
This subject - curve radius - appears to be the topic of choice of late; some months back it was which-is-better-atlas-or-kato-and-while-we-are-at-it-lets-expend-a-couple-of-dozen-responses-to-a-diatribe-against-bachmann. It really is nice to see someone ask something different although I have extreme confidence that that topic - atlas-or-kato - will again rear its head before this current month passes into the month of June.
I am not in any way meaning to belittle this topic; the fact that it is ask so frequently gives it a measure of importance in track planning and layout construction. Your curve radius makes a significant contribution to your selection of equipment. There are two issues associated with curve radius: on a given radius what type of equipment can I operate? or, what radius is required to operate a given type of equipment? Your question falls into this latter category.
I will own up to the fact that I am not that familiar with double stack equipment; I believe that the well in these cars is designed to hold 48 foot containers. With the space at the ends of these cars I will make an assumption that they measure out to somewhere in the vicinity of 60 feet in length and I will taylor my response to that figure.
The NMRA has a recommended practice for curve radius; this reommendation is designed for facilitating the smooth operation of equipment as well as for the appearance of your rolling stock. In regard to curves they have established a recommended practice of three times the length of the longest car required to negotiate that curve. In the case of these sixty foot cars with which we are dealing we need a recommended curve radius of one hundred and eighty feet; this scales out to about twenty five inches in HO Scale, thirteen and a half inches in N Scale.
What if you do not have room for a twenty-five foot ra
As mentioned above the wider you can go the better. But we all know that we cant make the long graceful curves of the real railroads so we have to make things a little sharper. I have Walthers Husky stack well cars (metal frame RTRs), Athearn articulated 5 car set, and 2 Athearn 48’ wells. The Atheran cars are all way to underwieght and will not run right without a weighted container in them (trying to switch these cars empty is impossible they are so light that they just walk over the switch) The Walthers cars are much better in this department. Now for the radius question or problem however you view it. Both sets will travel on 18" curves if the trucks are all tuned (NMRA guage on wheels and both axles in the truck match) On 18’ tho the Walthers cars will rub the flange on the coupler box (you will see a little slot for the wheel) they make a scraping noise but nothing serious. If the trucks are not tuned the Walthers cars will walk over the rail on 18" The Athearn cars will rub as well but they rub at the rear of the truck (or front of the rear truck) on the well portion of the car. They dont make as much noise when this happens but if the corners are not perfect the car could derail.
On 22" + curves I have not had any issues with either the Walthers or the Athearn well cars. The cars will negotiate #4 and #6 switches just fine but snap switches are iffy. If you have to use a snap switch then make sure to go slow over the turnout.
I dont own any 53’ wells or any other company’s cars other than Walthers or Athearn so I cant tell you what the other brands will do on 18" + I hope this helps you design your layout