01-28-2011, 06:34 PM
If there is any way that you could open that 18" up to 22" or 24", I'd do it. By using 18" radius you are starting out by placing yourself at a sizeable disadvantage. You are limiting locomotive size/length, car length and quite a few other considerations. By using the 18" radius curves, turnouts larger than #4 (#4.5) are cosmetic as you've already limited the wheelbase of locomotives with the 18" radius curve.
Since you are still at the pre-laying track stage, a point where changes can still be "comfortably" made, I would give serious thought to "Wishes and Druthers" and weight your priorities ... how important is each one of those desires and and are they important enough to effectively cripple future considerations. You have more space available to use than many others have and yet you are planning on using the tightest "useable" curve radius that is out there.
It is your railroad, not mine. But with a space measuring approximately 12' x 14' and a desire to be able to "follow my train," I'll be building an around-the-walls w/peninsula style benchwork and utilizing 24" (min., one place) and 26" curves, with 30" whenever I can spread it out. I am beginning my building in a terminal area, where trackage is "straighter" and the wheelbase of locomotives have already dictated turnout number to #6 as a minimum ... I'll not have to make the final decision on curve radii for some time yet, but I'll go with the broadest curves that I can manage. I gave up on any thoughts of a double main line in favor of a single main line with several long passing sidings (which in the end, look almost like a double main line) so that I can utilize wider, more prototypical curves and avoid tight, toy-like curves.
In the end, you must satisfy yourself, not any one of us. We can only make suggestions.
Since you are still at the pre-laying track stage, a point where changes can still be "comfortably" made, I would give serious thought to "Wishes and Druthers" and weight your priorities ... how important is each one of those desires and and are they important enough to effectively cripple future considerations. You have more space available to use than many others have and yet you are planning on using the tightest "useable" curve radius that is out there.
It is your railroad, not mine. But with a space measuring approximately 12' x 14' and a desire to be able to "follow my train," I'll be building an around-the-walls w/peninsula style benchwork and utilizing 24" (min., one place) and 26" curves, with 30" whenever I can spread it out. I am beginning my building in a terminal area, where trackage is "straighter" and the wheelbase of locomotives have already dictated turnout number to #6 as a minimum ... I'll not have to make the final decision on curve radii for some time yet, but I'll go with the broadest curves that I can manage. I gave up on any thoughts of a double main line in favor of a single main line with several long passing sidings (which in the end, look almost like a double main line) so that I can utilize wider, more prototypical curves and avoid tight, toy-like curves.
In the end, you must satisfy yourself, not any one of us. We can only make suggestions.
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln