MTH Advice on Steam Loco

I have a 4-8-4 Reading Lines T-1 in 3 rail by MTH and can tell you that the tender needs to be looked at as well for clearance issues as the steps on the tender stick out some and may hit stuff on either side of the track. I am using 042 Gargraves track.

Lee Fritz

I often run a railking WM challenger on o 42 track.  When I  get a chance I will measure the overhang for you.  It will run on o31 but looks kinda silly coming around a "corner".

jhz563 posted:

I often run a railking WM challenger on o 42 track.  When I  get a chance I will measure the overhang for you.  It will run on o31 but looks kinda silly coming around a "corner".

Please note that the original poster is referring to 45" RADIUS track, thus in "3-Rail speak" that would be 090.

Hot Water posted:

jhz563 posted:

I often run a railking WM challenger on o 42 track.  When I  get a chance I will measure the overhang for you.  It will run on o31 but looks kinda silly coming around a "corner".

Please note that the original poster is referring to 45" RADIUS track, thus in "3-Rail speak" that would be 090.

Good catch.  I was just responding because it was in the recent stack.  I didn't realize that this was a 2 rail question.

I placed my MTH N&W 4-8-4 J on a 50" branch line curve and found tht the cab roof overhang beyond the outer rail maxed out at 1 3/8". Northerns with all weather cabs (like an SP GS4 have different size and style roofs and a longer wheelbase so their max overhang may well be different.  Also a factor locomotive overhang is the amount of lateral play in the drivers.  With your 45"radius curve I suspect your clearances are right on the edge.  If you really want to run a 4-8-4 I'd buy the locomotive and notch the wall to clear the overhang if test results show additional clearance is needed.  Simple drywall repair is a small price to pay for model railroading enjoyment!!

Another thought - based on your post I suspect you're planning on laying 45" sectional curve track on a 96" wide plywood table top.  There may be two other alternatives to allow greater clearance.  One simple solution is to screw a 1x4 across the wall face of your benchwork even with the top of the plywood - that will provide an additional 3/4" clearance.  A other way to gain an additional 3/4" clearance would be to tighten up the curve using flex track to 44 5/8" radius and offset the center of radius closer to the edge of the table away from the wall.  There is more than one way to skin the cat.

Keystoned Ed posted:

I placed my MTH N&W 4-8-4 J on a 50" branch line curve and found tht the cab roof overhang beyond the outer rail maxed out at 1 3/8". Northerns with all weather cabs (like an SP GS4 have different size and style roofs and a longer wheelbase so their max overhang may well be different.  Also a factor locomotive overhang is the amount of lateral play in the drivers.  With your 45"radius curve I suspect your clearances are right on the edge.  If you really want to run a 4-8-4 I'd buy the locomotive and notch the wall to clear the overhang if test results sho they are required.  Simple drywall repair is a small price to pay for model railroading enjoyment!!

Many thanks on the replies and help and advice,I'm a novice in the hobby and its great to see the wealth of knowledge out there and guys willing to help,

Keystoned as you say buy the engine and notch the wall to suit,I think it will be pretty close so maybe not a lot to be notched out,

I do already have my simple layout in place,my original plan was to integrate a 2 rail layout into my 1/50 diecast hobby so its in no way prototypical,but this had lead to being hooked on the RR hobby now,kinda satisfied with modern diesels for now, I'm now after a nice steam engine and I'm loving the aesthetics of the 4-8-4's

Hi guys, well I finally have the funds to plump for the MTH 20-3484-2 GS-4 Daylight,while one I had found fell through, in my search to find another I stumbled across one on Ebay,but the seller stated that it requires a 102" radius curve to run,his friend found this out, I'm pretty sure he means 102" diameter(51" radius) as MTH state a minimum of 42" radius for scale wheels,

This is the one thing now making me think twice,can anyone out there confirm that the engine will run on 42" or even 45" radius curves?

I would love to get this engine as I have the scale wheel UP heritage SP SD70ACe and would love to run them together and find some passenger cars in the future

Again thanks in advance for any help