Re: Testing Reverse Curve

["Bill Lohman" <844bill@gmail.com>]

Hi Ira and the rest of you,

 

I'll be glad to help and I'll definitely get out to the Layout and do some testing the first Saturday I have open before we take the layout down for the show. 

 

Saturdays are currently booked with Westlake High School Football playoffs -- currently in San Antonio -- as we have a son on the team.

 

I plan on testing  Lionel and Sunset 3rd Rail Big Boys and a couple of other locomotives which have large wheelbases. The longest rigid wheelbase loco I have is a Sunset 3rd Rail UP 9030 4-12-2.  The flanged drivers on mine are on the first and last driver pair with the remaining 4 sets blind drivers.  Rick and Ricky have the Lionel version with flanged drivers in different location.   This might be an interesting comparison. 

 

 I'll test K-line 21 inch passenger cars which are usually pretty forgiving on tighter curves as their couplers are attached directly to their trucks like Lionel and MTH. 

 

 And I'll test  Golden Gate Depot 21 inch cars which have coupler and truck arrangements that are less forgiving as their design is more like 2 rail O and HO scale equipment. 

 

Hope this will help.  If anyone is interested in being there the day I test or in testing at the same time, please let me know soonest and I will try to pick a Saturday so we can attempt team up.   Otherwise, I'll just show up on a Saturday when we're operating and I'm free.

 

Rgds, Bill

 

P.S.  Those of you who made it this far, here's some wheelbase trivia on some larger locomotives that you might find interesting or might put you to sleep.. 

 

 Note that the Challenger has the smallest and most forgiving wheelbase, but does have overhang.  The Big Boy and the SP AC-12 Cab Forward are the king daddys of overhang.  The UP 9000 is the king of rigid wheelbase.  Even the Union Pacific had to be very careful where the deployed these guys.

 

UP 4-12-2  drivers wheelbase is 7 7/8 inches

 

Santa Fe 2-10-4   6 3/4 inches

 

UP FEF 3  4-8-4     5 5/8 inches

 

Big Boys   both  engine sets have a 4 3/4 inch wheelbase

 

SP AC-12 Cab Forward 4-8-8-2   both engine sets have a 4 3/8 inch wheelbase

 

UP Challenger  both engine sets have 3 1/4 inches wheelbase.

 

 

 

 

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Ira Schneider <ira_schneider@iname.com> wrote:

Hi,

We recently made a change to the layout at The Railyard to allow large articulated
engines to run on track 1.

We used the transition modules to shift track 1 from the D position
to the E position on the inside curve.  This increased the spacing between tracks 1
and 2 so articulated engines running on track 1 no longer hit trains running on track 2
while on the inside curve.

However, this moves track 1 to the E position on the corner, which consists of a combination
of O-72 and O-54 tracks.

We need to find out if there are any trains which cannot run on this track.

In the next few weeks, please bring any trains you have which require O-72
radius curves and test them on track 1.  This includes scale engines,
such as the Big Boy, and long passenger cars.  We already know that a scale
Challenger can navigate this track.  We are concerned that others may not be
so fortunate.

It is important that we understand the implications of this configuration before we
consider setting it up at a future event.  We already know that with the standard
configuration, an articulated engine, such as a scale Challenger, cannot run
on track 1 since it interferes with trains running on track 2.  We need to know
if this alternate configuration limits other trains from running.

Please let us know if you find any train which fails to run on this configuration.

Thanks.




Ira




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