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Running Trains With Larger Wheel Flanges
John L posted this question and is hoping for some help:
“I have a layout which accepted the larger flange on the older models but basically will not look at the finer standards. Should all the track be level horizontally, or should there be some superelevation? The wheel profile should ?? get the train around the curves?”
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Super elevation is part of the finer standards. There is no advantage in using super elevation in a model railroad lay-out unless you run high speed trains trains (I’m thinking ICE or TGV trains). However, it will look very nice in some cases, specially in tighter curves.
Super elevation will neither hurt nor help unless, as Rudolph said, you run high-speed trains since it doesn’t alter the distance between the rail top and the tie plate details (spike heads). If the flanges aren’t hitting the spike heads on the straight track they won’t on the curves. Of course, that means that you will need to use a larger code track to accommodate the larger flanges.
If your flanges are big they won’t run on the smaller profile tracks without derailing.