Traditional passenger cars on curves

My curves are 042. I run baby Madisons from Lionel,  and Railking passenger cars.  They run fine, and look fine to me.  JohnA

I have a set of 4 MTH RailKing 15" heavyweights and a set of 6 RailKing 15" streamline cars that look good on my 054 curves.  I do have a set of traditional Polar Express 12" cars that look good on the 036 curves that came with the set.  While I could run any of these three sets on tighter curves, they look much better.  The 15" cars really don't look good to me on the 036 curves.

I'm not seeing your photograph, John.  Is it just me folks??

@Lionelski posted:

Here is a pic of a set of 15 inch'ers rounding a curve on the WVRR that is a combo of O42 and O54. The lead-in to this curve is O72. IMHO, even these cars would look better on all O72.

No picture visible.

NONE OF THE CURVE TRACK pre-made are scale. So why does it matter how a scale car looks on an unscaled curve?

All of our straight track are scale.  Curve tracks are used to get the cars to a straight track. They all look good on straight track.

Let's see, one chart I see is the minimum curve for general service on North American Railways is 410' radius.  That would be an 820' diameter, divided by 48 gives you 17' of diameter for a "scale curve, or 204".  One of two of the 2-rail guys may get close to that, but I don't think any of us 3-railers are going to get there!

I see the pic, but I'm reposting it here again anyway:

@AlanRail posted:

NONE OF THE CURVE TRACK pre-made are scale. So why does it matter how a scale car looks on an unscaled curve?

All of our straight track are scale.  Curve tracks are used to get the cars to a straight track. They all look good on straight track.

Alan,

Because layouts have a lot of curves, it matters to me (at least) how these traditional size cars look on curves.

I was talking about non-scale cars on non-scale curves, anyway.

Anyone want to comment on how the newer, larger, scale cars look, in their opinion, on different curves larger than O72? I have no experience here.

I see the photograph in the most recent post now!  Thank you.

@Lionelski posted:

Alan,

Because layouts have a lot of curves, it matters to me (at least) how these traditional size cars look on curves.

I was talking about non-scale cars on non-scale curves, anyway.

Anyone want to comment on how the newer, larger, scale cars look, in their opinion, on different curves larger than O72? I have no experience here.

Actually, I don't think the 21" cars look all that good on O72 curves, that's the reason I stuck with the MTH 18" cars.

I agree that 18" is the best trade off for not having 204" curves on a layout. If you have a nice 10-12 foot straight with hidden curves at each end you can get a good run by shot even though that only gets maybe 5 cars of the 21" variety. A typical 11-13 car consist with A-B-A is a 30 foot train. On a 5x9 layout it would look a little funny.  

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Let's see, one chart I see is the minimum curve for general service on North American Railways is 410' radius.  That would be an 820' diameter.

John,  I hadn't seen that number, thank you for sharing.  High speed rail running at 150 mph needs 8000' radius curves.  That is a lot of real estate, most of which would have to be acquired for high speed rail to see the light of day in the US.  John

I found the number in an Internet search, I'm sure it's NOT for high speed service.

Minimum railway curve radius

Click on graphic to expand

Lionelski- that train looks good on your great looking layout! JohnA

John - Lionel's traditional 15 inch aluminum passenger cars look sweet on 0-72 curves!

Now if anyone only made aluminum or stamped steel cars in 027 length.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Actually, I don't think the 21" cars look all that good on O72 curves, that's the reason I stuck with the MTH 18" cars.

I would agree.

The modern production 21 inch cars age huge compared to the longest made by PostWar Lionel (15 inches). The widest curves made by PostWar Lionel were O72 and, as Don W stated, look great with the 15 inchers

@John A posted:

Lionelski- that train looks good on your great looking layout! JohnA

Much thanks John A

@ChooChoo1972 posted:

Now if anyone only made aluminum or stamped steel cars in 027 length.

Anyone got a good hacksaw or chop saw????

Agree that the 21"-ers look a bit tight on O-72.  I have O-80 ScaleTrax on the ceiling loop in my office & they look ok, but you're only seeing them from inside the curve.  Just moved to a new house, & hoping to have double-mainline in the O-88-96 range, but may need to cheat in spots.  I usually try for the widest curves I can get away with, at least in highly visible areas.   Though if you're going for a more toylike look.... 

@Fridge56Vet posted:

...........  I usually try for the widest curves I can get away with..........

Me too Fridge56vet

I remember wanting a set of the 15” aluminum passenger cars to run behind my F3s. Then I got a set from Williams. I agree they don’t look great running on 0-31 tubular or 0-36 fastrack. Now I’m just happy with the O-27 cars or the baby Madison’s. Once I retire and build a permanent layout I’ll have at least one loop of O-72 to run them.

Great topic btw for us “traditional “ guys.