Another Dumb Question....

[Anonymous]

I have the Bachmann Silverton Flyer on30 that runs on Ho narrow gauge track. The track that come's with it makes a 47" x 38" oval track. My question is can I cut the width back some to make it smaller then 38" wide by putting in a couple piece's of 18" 1/2 radius or 18" 1/3 radius piece's of track? The length is fine, but the width is making it stick way out from the wall where I would like to put it with my village. Please help my hubby is getting upset over my train thing. Am I going to have to move the furniture out of the house to set this up, lol.
Sheri[:D]

[Anonymous]

No i don't think so because it is already 18" radius!

if you multiply 18 by two you get 36 but that is the distance from the centreline of the track to the other centreline. Add on 1" on each side for the width of the tracka and roadbed and you get 38" I'm afraid.

I wouldn't try using an even smaller radius because the loco might not like it.

[Jetrock]

It sounds like your curves are already 18" in radius, as 18" radius track creates a semicircle that is 36" in diameter.

You might try replacing the 18" radius track with 15" radius--this would be 30" wide (well, more like 32" wide including clearance) or you could make even sharper curves with flextrack--it depends on how tight a curve your engine will manage. I'd suggest trying the 15" snap-track first--it's a relatively cheap solution.

By the way, On30 engines run on standard-gauge HO track--standard HO gauge track is roughly equivalent to 30 inches wide in O scale, thus making the same track standard gauge in HO and narrow gauge in O.

[preceng]

Yep, you'd need to go to the 15" radius track. This would save you 6". Hope this is enough. By the way...there are no dumb questions here. We are all in it together.

[BR60103]

Sheri:
If you put a half piece of track in a curve in place of a full piece (Was that your intention?) you get a curve with corners in it. Your train will not be happy with the corners.