Athearn Challenger Turning Radius

[Herc Driver]

I'm interested in purchasing the Athearn Nscale Challenger but my layout has 11 inch curves. The Athearn website indicates it will run on 11 inch radius curves due to their split frame construction, but other Nscale retailers indicate the engine will take a 9.75 inch radius, which would imply the engine will run on my layout with little problems.

Anyone who has this engine (or knowledge of how it runs) know what the effective minimum radius might be?

[TrainNut]

Mine broke something in the driveline going around a 9 3/4" radius. I've also got a radius that's just a tad shy of 11 and it complains around that one as well.

[Herc Driver]

Thank you for the information...this would be a pretty large purchase for me and before plunking down some serious coin, I really wanted to know if it would run or just sit nicely in the box for many years. I don't have a problem with any passenger cars or long diesel engines (90MACs and such) but there's a lot going on with a steam engine and I didn't want to get one that's too long and problematic to run as it bound up in the curves.

I'm still considering it though...it's such a great looking steam engine and is hard to pass up. We only have one steam engine (I can hear the gasps of disbelief now from you steam guys) but have been thinking of adding a few more for excursion runs - very similar to those offered by the NC Transportation Museum. Plus, I think some of those steam engines just plain look cool. Unfortunately, the diesel offerings almost all look about the same, but there's certainly some character in a steam engine. Kato's GS4 looks like it should be able to handle the smaller radius curves, and with Kato reliability, might be the best choice for our layout. But it sure would be nice to see some a long and powerful steam engine running our layout.