Was looking to buy a Ribbon Rail brand radius gauge for HO track. Might anyone know where I can purchase one? I also have many locomotives and need to find the specs for their minimum curve radius. My longest locomotive is a P2K SD60. Anyone know where I can find the specs for that also? Appreciate any info.
Thanks,
Brad
I guess it depends on what you are looking for, Walthers has a few of them in stock and Say they are expecting to restock by feb 1. The 25" radius they do have in stock would be plenty, I would think for your SD60. I wouldn’t go any Less than 22 and of course, bigger is always better when it comes to track curves…
Last months MR mentioned a raduis guage and may list a source for it. The one in particular was a 22" guage. Most modern locos will negotiate an 18" radius but the problem lie in that the outside swing of the end of the loco will cause derailment of the trailing car. One way to fix this is to use a long shank coupler on your locomotive. You SD 60 is about the same size as my ac44cw. The manufactures website may list specs
I know for a fact that the P2K SD60 and SD60M will handle an 18" curve just fine without throwing the trailing car off. I have 4 of these and my layout had some 18" radii and I have no problems. If you are planning on getting any of the 6 axle Athearn Genisis models (ie. SD70MAC) they will throw the first car at 18" and bind a little but do not derail at 22". So far I have not had any Katos that could not handle 18" not even the really bid SD80MAC or the SD90/45MACs they both do fine even tho Katos instructions say min of 22". Hope this helps ya
PS. thank you Rolleiman for the link I was looking for those guages too.
Guys,
Thank you all for the helpfull information, much abliged to all of you.
Brad
Why not make one? Layout and spike down a length of flextrack on the radius. Take a piece of thick styrene and press it against the rails after painting the rails with a magic marker. Trim out the area between the stripes. One sheet of plastic and one piece of track should allow you to make as many different ones as you need.
I second ndbprr, I have used cardboard and 1/8 luen plywood, curved radius gauges, some are short and others are over a half circle with different gauges on the sides. .
For marking flat surface areas, a yard stick or thin strip with small holes, one for a awl the hold the center point and other radius holes for the pencil John