In a suitcase???

[Lissadell]

I’ve just been given a very nice vintage leather suitcase.

 

The internal dimensions are:  length 62cm  width  39cm  height  18cm

 

Just wondering if a simple oval, running a Bachmann Quarry Hunslet etc would fit in there.

 

I know the recommended minimum radius is given as 9inch but has anyone run the little Bachmann round something less?

 

seems a shame to waste such a lovely suitcase ……………

 

thanks for any practical first hand experience with these tiny models - not my area of knowledge at all.

 

very willing to learn though!

 

Adrian

[Lissadell]

Could I just follow up my original posting …………..

 

Have any colleagues run a Quarry Hunslet successfully around a curve a bit less than the recommended minimum of 9inch radius?

 

probably when using yard lengths of track rather than fixed radius Set track curves.

thanks

 

adrian

[009 micro modeller]

On 01/04/2023 at 10:45, Lissadell said:

I’ve just been given a very nice vintage leather suitcase.

 

The internal dimensions are:  length 62cm  width  39cm  height  18cm

 

Just wondering if a simple oval, running a Bachmann Quarry Hunslet etc would fit in there.

 

I know the recommended minimum radius is given as 9inch but has anyone run the little Bachmann round something less?

 

seems a shame to waste such a lovely suitcase ……………

 

thanks for any practical first hand experience with these tiny models - not my area of knowledge at all.

 

very willing to learn though!

 

Adrian

As nobody’s responded to this yet, I haven’t tried a Bachmann Quarry Hunslet but a Kato  11-103 chassis (and presumably the similar 104 and replacement 109/110) will go down to about 4 inch/10cm radius, as will 4-wheel Minitrains locos (although speeds should be kept very low of course). The Kato chassis has a longer wheelbase than the Quarry Hunslet (but in my experience the Kato has slightly more slack in the back to backs than is perhaps the case with other 9mm gauge stock, which would allow it to handle tighter curves). Minitrains Gmeinders etc. I think would probably be about the same wheelbase as the Hunslet.

 

The main issue is likely to be couplings; if you wish to couple anything to the loco using conventional couplings then the overhang is likely to be an issue, although I think some people have got round this by using long chains etc. instead. Obviously it should go without saying that wagons should also be short wheelbase 4-wheelers. I know someone who is building an 016.5 Welsh slate quarry layout with a tiny radius, obviously a bigger scale than 009 but their curves are similarly smaller than the normal first radius for 16.5mm gauge.

 

There are some interesting bits of N gauge set track made by Kato and Tomix which might be suitable, see here for 117mm radius: https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/kato-k20-176.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxuSOxoTI_gIVnhEGAB06BQc0EAQYASABEgJHGPD_BwE

 

I think Tomix go even smaller to 103mm, and there are some with inset/paved track as well as I think they’re mainly intended for N gauge tram and light rail modelling.

 

In prototype terms, a relatively tight radius should be fine for the sort of quarry prototype you might be looking at, and despite even the usual 9-inch radius being considered unprototypically tight for most ‘common carrier’ type 2ft gauge lines there have been quite a few industrial lines of around 2ft gauge with smaller minimum radius than that (when scaled up to full size - i.e. 9 inches in 4mm would be about 57ft when scaled up).

 

 

I’m not sure exactly what radius this 2ft gauge curve on Mail Rail is, but the Severn Lamb passenger trains that run round it these days are specified for a minimum radius of 16 metres (or about 21cm in 009, so under 9 inches but quite a bit gentler than the radii you’ll be looking at for your suitcase layout). Checkrail all the way round, slight superelevation and I can confirm from driving round it that there is a bit of flange squeal but it is fine, at least at low speeds.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Adrian, my wife is starting a project building a layout in a vintage steam trunk. She has just bought a Quarry Hunslet and the radius of the curve will be a bit tighter than set track 1st radius. I will let you know how she gets on.

 

Cheers, Ade.

[Nearholmer]

Not by any means a minimum for very short wheelbase stock, but a good dependable radius is 150mm. It was, I’m fairly sure, what Eggerbahn supplied in the 1960s, and there used to be a beautiful line in points by Shinohara, with Code 40 rail, to that radius, and both worked perfectly well.

 

Move up through the scales to G, and 600mm is very normal (equivalent to 120mm at 9mm gauge), and in full size the smallest radius of British Standard portable track and points for 2ft gauge was 13ft (c4000mm), it was rare to see that used on loco-worked lines, but things like 600mm gauge exhibition railways, which transported thousand of passengers around all the great exhibitions in the latter part of C19th seem to have commonly used c12 000mm (equivalent to 180mm at 9mm gauge).

 

In short, the 9” (229mm) radius chosen by Peco is quite conservative, presumably to allow larger six-wheeled locos etc., or maybe it’s habit, or the proof of experience, in that their “crazy track” in the Eggerbahn era had 9” radius points.

Edited June 25, 2023 by Nearholmer

[Silly Moo]

Hoping this may be of interest. It’s N but there are some similarities. The storage box is 320 x 400mm. The track is Kato and has a radius of approximately 117mm. I tried bending Peco flexitrack to a tight radius but needed a rail bender which I didn’t want to buy. Hence the Kato track. I can run N gauge locos that have a short wheelbase and Peco 4 wheeled wagons. 
 

For inspiration there is a company in Yorkshire called Suitcase Trains that does suitcase layouts. There are micro layouts on Small N Working’s  website. If you do Facebook there is a Micro Layouts page.