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For Beginners – Curved Track For Your Railroad
Regular contributor John has once again supplied a wonderfully informative article for publication. On behalf of all readers I would like to thank John for the excellent contribution he is making to the hobby. I know it is really appreciated.
No matter what size model railroad you have or are building, it’s important to have the right curved track for the kind of locomotives you may own. Just like making sure all the track is kink-free with clean rails, using the correct curves can make your train run realistically as long as the track is clear. On the other hand, a locomotive running on too-small curves can not only look bad, but can cause derailments and collisions if the operator is not careful.
A real railroad uses easements to bring a train into a turn, meaning that the track has the largest curve at its starting points and gradually goes into smaller curves between these points. Easements can be used and look great on model railroads, but take up a lot of space on smaller projects.
As related to diesels, a four-axle locomotive, such as an ALCO RS and C-400 series, the EMD F or GP, and the GE B-series, are usually shorter than the six-axle locomotives like the ALCO C-600 series, the EMD SD, or the GE C-units. For N-Scale railroads, the minimum curve to use is the 9-3/4” Radius, which can handle a four-axle locomotive pretty well. Six-axle locomotives will run on 9-3/4” curved track, but look and run better on a minimum 11” Radius to handle the longer diesels. In HO, which is almost twice the size of N, the minimum track curves should be 18” Radius for four-axle diesels and 22” Radius for six-axle diesels.
If you run a train with passenger cars on your railroad, use the largest curves possible. Passenger cars can be longer than freight cars, and need the larger curves to make turns. Also use this principle if you model the modern era, because some of today’s huge engines and bigger freight cars need the larger radii.
A problem arises when modeling a smaller railroad. The plywood boards in home improvement stores are usually cut to a 4×8-foot size, or in half to 4×2. These sizes do not support the larger curves. A 22” Radius (HO) on a 4×8 or 11” Radius (N) on a 2×4 can fit on the plywood, but the track is too close to the edge. Get around this by using smaller curved track and go with four-axle diesels.
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There was an article on how to compute your curve to give the best performance AND the best look for your layout. Basically, it said to take the length of your longest locomotive or piece of rolling stock and measure from coupler-to-coupler and, using a simple formula, determine your “curve ratio”.
The curve ratio is a factor of the rolling stock length. For instance, a HO 40 foot box is 43 scale feet over the couplers – or 5.9 actual inches (150 mm).
If you take 5.9” and multiply it by 2, you get 11.8”. Round to the nearest inch, in this case, is 12”. The 40 foot HO box cars should just barely track on a 12” radius curve. Continue computing values (below) and see the results:
HO 40 foot cars
2.0x 12” radius
2.5x 15” radius
3.0x 17” radius
3.5x 21” radius
4.0x 24” radius
5.0x 30” radius
A 40 foot HO box cars ought to track reliably on a 15” radius, and should track quite nicely on a 17” radius curve. Further, the cars will look reasonably realistic when viewed from the inside of a 21” radius curve, and look good when viewed from the outside of a 24” radius
curve.
And lastly, 40 foot HO box cars with body-mounted couplers should couple completely hands-off on 30” radius curves.