22" Radius Turnout

[jacobsc]

I have an HO scale layout with a 22" radius curve where I want to place a turnout. All of the switches I have found so far will replace an 18" curve, not 22". Does anyone know of a turnout (straight or curved) that I can use on a 22" radius curve?

Thanks.

[cacole]

I believe Peco makes a turnout that is 22 inch radius. Check their Web site and look for what they call their "large radius" double curved turnout. Shinohara also makes one of, I believe, 24/18 inch radius, which is sold by Walters under their own brand name. The Peco is available in code 100 rail, and I believe Shinohara is only available in code 70 or 83.

[Anonymous]

yes, i would look at peco. Hmm, i wonder if you could bend a turnout with a little modification?[%-)]

[mcouvillion]

Peco's large radius turnout has the diverging route at 60" radius. The medium radius turnout is 30" radius. I'm not sure what the small turnout is, but I bet it is real close to 22" radius. It should work in that application. I hope you want the diverging route to go straight to the outside of the curve!

As far as bending a turnout to fit, I have to tell a short story. I was helping a guy get his trackwork wired correctly on a 4-track main NYC layout. At the entrance to Croton-Harmon, there were turnouts on the #2 and #3 tracks that we just couldn't get to work right. After looking at them for quite a while, I realized that they were installed improperly - both of them! The installer had taken a left-hand Shinohara turnout and forced it to be a right-hand, and had done the same thing to the right-hand turnout, now a left-hand! There wasn't any way either was going to work properly. Why he did it I'll never know. I pulled both up, straightened them, and installed them in their proper location. Problem solved.

Mark C.

[Anonymous]

I'd also check out the turnout kits. They might provide the geometry you are looking for or the raw material to make the one you need.

[TBat55]

Check the Walthers catalog (if you'll use Shinohara). They list the radius of turnouts.

[tstage]

jacobsc,

Welcome to the forum!

I'm with you, my friend. Much to my chagrin, I have yet to find a turnout with a 22" radius. Walthers (Shinohara) makes a 24"/18" curved turnout but that's the closest that I have seen. Nothing from either Atlas or Peco. I use 22" on my small 4 x 8' layout and I can't tell you how many times I could have used one in my design ideas. I've even contemplated building my own. (If I do, maybe I can set up a production line and sell them to Walthers. Yeah, right.)

jacobsc, if you, or any of the rest of you locate one, please let me know. I would be VERY interested. I boggles my mind. They have curved turnouts for all the other sizes. Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh [exhaling]....

Tom