hi all, I was wondering what the minimum radius curved track is that can be run with longer passenger cars. the cars specifically are the kato amtrak superliners and the union pacific smoothsides. i had tried to run these cars on viaduct track once before, but the curve was too sharp and the body of the cars was riding up on the sidewall and it derailed. i'd like to incorporate some raised viaduct portions to my layout, but i don't want to buy a ton of unitrack to find out which is appropriate. thanks all.
Minimum radius track for long cars
The usual recommentation is
The usual recommentation is to use the biggest radius you can put on your layout....the bigger the radius the better your cars will look. Having said that, you can probably get away with 11" radius.....if your trains aren't too long and you have no hills to speak of. 15" would work better and look a lot better and would be MY choice for minimum if I was running a lot of passenger equipment.
i'm not talking about what
i'm not talking about what looks good, the kato viaduct unitrack has low walls on the side, i need to find the radius that allows the long passenger cars to clear that wall. the smallest radius track naturally causes the cars to ride up on the wall, causing chaos.
I have two pieces of 15"R
I have two pieces of 15"R 30 deg Kato viaduct that I'm not using. I tested a Con-cor Superliner I and a Micro-trains 89' flat car and both work just fine. It's a little close for the flat car, but it doesn't touch the wall. I'd actually like to sell these two pieces as I now have no use for them on my current layout. I tore down the layout they were destined for before I ever used them (I moved from the apartment I was living in and changed trackplans). Shoot me a PM if you are interested in buying them and we'll work out a deal.
Thanks, Bronman
Try looking up clearances
Try looking up clearances and track centers on curves.
http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/consist.html
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Bryan
RP-11 Curvature & Rolling
Joined: 2008-08-05