https://imgur.com/a/UoqAFMFI am in the progress of building my first real model railroad and am concerned about the scenery clearance on a curve. the outside track is 26 radius with woodland scenics inclines and risers. 2% grade.
i obviously want enough clearance for large steam engines like the big boy and passenger cars. I am going to be covering the inclines and mountain with plaster cloth.
Maybe set up a test track, and run the big boy, and measure what you need. Kind of like a 1:1 mock-up, in whatever scale your working with.
Mike.
My You Tube
Almost as big... my EM-1 2-8-8-4 will go through 22 inch radius curves, but it requires 1 1/4" clearance for cab overhang.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
As suggested, mock up some track temporarily and play with different curve radii, see what is going to clear and what won't. You must take note inside the curve and outside the curve, and you'll have to look all over the locomotive for something to catch.
My worst offender is the Rivarossi Chesapeake & Ohio H-8 2-6-6-6. I don't know if they still sell it as they did my version in 2006, when they first introduced a sound decoder for that model, but they include two cabs, one with an extended roof overhang rearward. I wrecked the fragile included extended cab, so I left the one that was already mounted in place. Still, that cab's rear corner, with the shorter overhang, catches on anything close to the tracks. Worse, though, on tangents, is the engineer's injector overflow pipe jutting down and out from that side of the cab floor. So, it may be the pilot beam, it may be the roof overhang, it may be another item altogether, but something is going to trip you up if you don't establish minimums for the radius you intend to lay.
Do a mock up first is a very good idea.
On an earlier layout I forgot to test things with my biggest locomotive; at the time it was a Class 58. Everything was fine until I ran the 58.
As an aside for anyone else. Have a little more clearance etc in case you buy a larger locomotive etc. I have a 'Coronation'Class' locomotive that is my biggest. A few minor alterations had to be made to be able to run it.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
In my experience, if you want your "model trains" to look like "toy trains", put your big locos on small radius curves. That reminds me of the Lionel trains of my youth (which I now collect).
That said, I know its difficult for some MRs to have the layout room for larger radius curves, and have the craving for that big articulated or Northern or Mountain locomotive.
In any case, as the previous posters suggested, build a mock up before you put down roadbed/track/scenery. You will not regret doing that.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
mobilman44 In my experience, if you want your "model trains" to look like "toy trains", put your big locos on small radius curves. That reminds me of the Lionel trains of my youth (which I now collect).
Quite true quote by mobilman44.
On one section of my layout large locomotives are banned because they look rediculous in that section. (Done deliberately I add.) A good reason to change to smaller locomotives.
Changing to smaller locomotives was a feature in parts of England and Scotland where large locomotives were not allowed.
Before doing scenery, you should be running trains just to make sure all is right. Much easier to correct mistakes at that point.
Well the biggest problem is that's kind of how woodland Scenic's risers are designed. You're supposed to cover the risers before doing the track
mobilman44 In my experience, if you want your "model trains" to look like "toy trains", put your big locos on small radius curves. That reminds me of the Lionel trains of my youth (which I now collect). That said, I know its difficult for some MRs to have the layout room for larger radius curves, and have the craving for that big articulated or Northern or Mountain locomotive. In any case, as the previous posters suggested, build a mock up before you put down roadbed/track/scenery. You will not regret doing that.
well not everyone has that amount of room as a club layout would. There's nothing wrong with starting smaller. Obviously as time goes on I would like to expand my layout larger.
I don't remember the good detail, but I've seen several methods to set up clearance 'gauges' along the layout or curve to catch actual inside and outside items that overhang.
A cautionary tale from the prototype world: if you have two long, wide, or overhanging items, be sure they'll clear each other at all points. Apparently there were a few points on PRR where wartime track maintenance had 'eased' the track center over a bit, and two J1s would knock bits off each other when passing...
I thought I had all my clearances figured out but over the years something changed and there was a couple of conflicts with my Rocky Mountains and rolling stuff. I had made my granite rock faces out of foam and when the problem arose I simply gouged out the offending bit of granite and slapped some granite grey on the pink and it was as good as new.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
When I set up my deep rock cut out of extruded foam, I basically set up a mock up, though it was the actual wall. I ran the longest passenger cars I had through the cut then shaved it back a litttle further, so the passengers couldn't reach out and hit it, thus breaking an arm. Since i didn't have any particularly long locos for outside overhang, I just made it about the same distance from the tracks. I used Sculptamold in a tinfoil mold fo finish the curved rock face.
Good luck,
Richard
krakow Well the biggest problem is that's kind of how woodland Scenic's risers are designed. You're supposed to cover the risers before doing the track