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7 Responses to 6 Axle Locomotives Operating with Long Cars
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Michael
While the locos and cars will most likely not have a problem making it through the curves the amount of overhang will be very toy like. With those constraints on size I would look a maximum car length of 50′ and small steam or switcher locos. If you don’t care about how it looks than do as you please. It is you railroad.
Michael,
I am sure you will hear from others, who have the same opinion as me. Most 6 axle locos will handle 22″ curves, especially newer ones. However, there is a tradeoff, in that the locos and rolling stock, may have excessive overhang on the curves. Personally, I am happy when a 6 axle makes it around my track and can live with the overhang. Remember rule #1, it’s your RR and only you have to be happy. I am currently building a peninsula extension and unlike when I built the main part of my layout, I temporarily laid track and tested all my long locos and rolling stock to make sure they worked flawlessly. It cost me a few days but it saved me years of aggravation. Now that I know everything will run well, I don’t have to worry about modifying locos and rolling stock to get them to work. Glenn
You don’t say if you’re in N scale or HO. In N scale, 22 in radius is more than enough. In HO, it would depend on the particular rolling stock but while 22 inch might work, 24 inch would probably look better.
I am currently running 6 axle locos ( F-45s, SD-40s, even an EMD E-7 ) and on a 4 foot X 4 foot layout, just to watch my trains run, they waltz around the track with no problem. The inside track is approx. a 19 1/2″ radius and the outside is about a 22″ Radius. And those big engines have no problems. There are even No. 4 turnouts ( which I think are equal to 18″ radius ), and even those are no problem for any of my engines.
Most 6-axle locos will handle 22″ curves, and also most freight cars, but passenger cars may have trouble (speaking from experience). I am of course talking about scale-length rolling stock. Going back to freight cars, those with low bodies may derail. The trucks on these may hit the side or center sill of the car.
It is best to test all of your rolling stock before you permanently secure the track.
I would suggest 24″ rad. curves. One problem you’ll run into will those 50’+ cars with extended draft gear. The coupler swing between your 6 axle unit and a long car with a short wheel base on a sharp curve is great. . I had to limit a industry to being switched with only 4 axle power because my 50′ boxcar would derail on the 22″Rad. curve hooked to a SD7. Scale length passenger cars are out unless you remove diaphrams.
I’m going to go in a different direction on this post. 6×4 is a small layout, if you like running large loc’s. I don’t know if you live in an apartment, or home, but sometimes you can get real creative in finding extra space for a larger layout. I built a room in my attic, that is 36′ long, and 6′ wide. My layout goes around the room walls, with the walk space in the middle, I come up into the room inside of one end of the layout. The layout is chest-high, and in adding a 2nd layer, one trip around the layout for a train, is 580′, and has decent radius curves in most places. I took some time for me to figure out where I was going to build a layout, then I realized that the attic was perfect, and it paid off in the end.