Fred, thanks for your response, much appreciated. Especially your "rule-of-thumb" guide for minimum radius curves.
Cheers
Kozzie
The original Bachmann On30 line, which includes the 2-6-0 and passenger cars, were designed to run well on 18" radius HO train set track.
The Porters will go much sharper, of course. But newer products like the Forney and the larger outside frame locos tend to prefer 22" radius or better.
The LDSIG rule of thumb recommends a minimum radius 3 times the actual length of your longest rolling stock measured over the couplers. Although conservative, the LDSIG recommendation is scale/gauge independent, allows for body-mounted couplers and detailed underbodies, and non-similar length equipment to stay coupled on curves. Details about the rule of thumb are here: http://ldsig.org/wiki/index.php/Curve_radius_rule-of-thumb.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
I'm starting to lay the track for an On30 layout. I'm using the PECO On30 flexi-track where possible. What's the recommended minimum radius for a curve using On30 track? My locos and roling stock are all relatively short: Bachmann Spectrum On30 0-4-2 Porter steam loco and a couple of pax cars.
Any advice is appreciated.