I love Big Boys, they are my favorite locomotive. I want to get a scale one, the new Vision Line BB would be awesome. But I don't want to wait until it comes out to design and build. In the interest of getting something built so I can take my trains up off of the floor (Away from my 1 year old and 2 cats.), I want to build an around the room near ceiling shelf layout this spring. I want to have two trains up there, both run at once or one at a time while the other is parked, so it'll be a double main or single with passing siding, I haven't picked yet. But when I get a scale Big Boy I want to be able to run it up there and not worry about it hitting the walls or the train on the other track in curves. The room is a bedroom, so the curves will be O72. I am planning on Atlas track, and need to know what center line spacing to use, as well as how far from the wall to have the center of the track. Can some of you with scale Big Boys find time to put it on O72 curves and find out how far the boiler sticks out. I seem to remember reading at one time it was like 3.5" from center rail, but I want to be sure. This means the parallel tracks need to be like 4.75" center to center spacing when the BB is on the inside track. Thanks!
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