O gauge minimum radius?

[cromptonnut]

What's the minimum radius curve that you could reasonably expect rtr stock to go round?

 

I know you could get short wagons and locos round much tighter, but would 5ft radius be reasonable? This would most likely be 'off scene' for the majority anyway so visual impact isn't necessarily important.

[Jack]

What's the minimum radius curve that you could reasonably expect rtr stock to go round?

 

I know you could get short wagons and locos round much tighter, but would 5ft radius be reasonable? This would most likely be 'off scene' for the majority anyway so visual impact isn't necessarily important.

 

Depends on the stock ... 6ft is usually a safe bet as most things are designed to go round this. Most short wheel base stock should be able to handle 4ft ok and Sang Cheng list that as the safe minimum for their Terrier. Not sure about the current round of Heljan diesels though. I know a chap you used 3ft as standard, but then you're into the realms of light railway stuff.

 

5ft should be ok for most things, but don't expect to get a Duchess or Peak through it tho!!

[cromptonnut]

I don't have room for either The longest thing I am likely to be running will be either a DMU, or a Heljan 33 (when it comes out) and Mk 1's.

 

I know Peco pointwork is 6ft (72") radius but I assumed that tighter (whatever the equivalent of Radius 2) would be acceptable - is it a fair assumption that what manufacturers do in OO would work in O?

[paulr1949]

I don't have room for either The longest thing I am likely to be running will be either a DMU, or a Heljan 33 (when it comes out) and Mk 1's.

 

I know Peco pointwork is 6ft (72") radius but I assumed that tighter (whatever the equivalent of Radius 2) would be acceptable - is it a fair assumption that what manufacturers do in OO would work in O?

 

You should be able to get away with 4' - 4' 6" with those - I have radii between 4'6 and 8' on my layout (including a newly built 3-way point where both sides are 5' radius.

[3 link]

As you are using loco's with short wheelbase bogies you could go right down to say 3' but it would look c**p, but if like you say you just want the tighter radius just " off scene" then who cares. I have an 8f 2-8-0 that just goes through a 6' turnout, and it's the length of the wheelbases you will be using that will be the governing factor. So no 6 wheeled milk tankers, etc.

 

ATB, Martyn.

[jamie92208]

I build my layout with a 6' minimum but have a 5'6" test track at home so that I've got some margin for errors in tracklaying where you can get short sections of slightly tight radius. As I have a lot of 4-4-0's that is about the minimum. Some very stiff 0-6-0's that a friend owns have problems on 6'. It all depends on te stock you are using. The DMU's shouls go round but you might have problems with buffer locking when the motored vehicle is at the back, you would need to ensure that you had oval buffers and that they are correctly aligned with the long axis horizontal.

 

Jamie