Question on 80' cars

[stang_crazy]

Wondering what would be the best curve radius for 80' + cars? I was thinking 22 at least but wondering if 24 might not be better.

Or should i go bigger then that.

thanks mike

 

[jbaakko]

Most older 85' flats, 86' flats & boxcars & 89' flats & auto racks can handle 22" but look nasty doing so. If you're planning to go modern, you might end up with Genesis Auto-Max cars, and Atlas Thrall Articulated which require 26" minimum for operation... If that's the case, I'd go 26"+ now, if not, I'd still go with 24".

Also, of note, I have no clue what the minimums are on the Walthers' or Atlas 89' flats that are out now. I suspect 22" but maybe 24".

 

[UP2CSX]

In my experience, 86's auto racks and boxcars are really tough on 22" curves, especially if you are running a solid train of them. Even if they say the minimum curve is 22", a solid train will start to exert lateral forces on the couplers in the curve and the third or fourth car will always derail. As Josh said, even if you are only running one car, the overhang is really bad, enough so that you may have to do some scenery rearranging to accommodate them. If you have the room for 26" curves, I'd use those in a heatbeat. 24" is better than 22" but I really think 26" curves will give you the best reliability and reduced overhang.

 

[Larry]

I have 1 set of Articulated CSX auto racks & they will not turn on anything less than a 26" curve. I know because in 1 area I have a 25 & 1/2" curve & they derail everytime.
If you could go a slight bigger than 26" it would help. I don't have any trouble w/long flats, boxcars, etc. because the couplers are attached to the trucks. Most are the Walthers cars. I have 2 older Athearn diesels that won't turn on a 25 & 1/2" curve.

Larry

 

[kbkchooch]

Bigger is better

IMHO bigger is better. We occasionally run 85 ft flats and auto racks on the clube layout, where the minumum radius is 36 inches, and they still seem to have too much overhang for my taste (along with 85ft passenger cars). But space constrainsts being what they are. go for the biggest curve that space will allow. Not only would they look better, but they operate better too!

 

[stang_crazy]

do they make any auto carriers less then 89'?

 

[lmackattack]

I just bought some heavyweight Passenger cars and there is no way they will run successfully at my home layout with 22" radius. your cars are longer!! I dont think they would roll very well on anything under 30" to be honest you also have to consider the overhang with tracks that parallel each other in a curve or tunel exits in a curve etc... with that long of a car on tight curves will also limit the amount of cars you can pull

Just my .02

 

[UP2CSX]

stang, there were open auto racks that were 85' long, which is still pretty big. The first auto carriers were 50' boxcars. Taking a cue form the circus, railroads started using 60' flat cars with a temporary superstructures so they had a double deck for vehicles. This soon gave way to three deck permanent auto racks. These were the 85 footers. Due to vandalism, the railroads started enclosing these with sheet steel panels until the purpose built, fully enclosed 89' foot auto racks of today.

The short version of this is that, unless you want to run 50' double door auto box cars, used until the middle 50's, or the 60' foot double deck auto flats of the 60's and early 70's, you're stuck with some pretty long cars.