American 4-4-0 minimum operating radius ?

[norman]

Dear Mr. Bachmann and others:

What is the factory recommended minimum operating radius and what minimum operating radius have hobbyists ran the 4-4-0 at ?

Thank you

Norman

[Udo]

Hi Norman!
The american will run without problems on LGB R3 (about 2.4m Dia).
With some modification it wil operate (slow)    R1 also, the modification is to move the front wheels a little forawrd (about 5mm) so they will not touch the cylinders.
But I would not recommend this... looks very ugly!
So R3 will be the recommendation.
Udo

[Tom Lapointe]

I managed to get my 4-4-0 to operate on R1 on my old indoor layout by carefully filing the curved slot the front truck rides in slightly wider; another issue I then ran into was short circuits caused by the pilot truck wheel heads touching the cylinder head covers.  I cured that by applying a very light coating of epoxy to the cylinder heads to insulate them.  It did run then on R1 curves but was never entirely "happy"  about it. 

Work on the indoor layout was virtually stopped when I finally obtained "right-of-way  to build my outdoor layout, which has 69" radius (Aristo 11.5 foot diameter or LGB R5 equivalent)  as my mainline minimum radius, & 48" radius (LGB "R3" equivalent, 8-foot diameter) for sidings & industrial trackage.  NO issues running anything Bachmann makes on  those curves.  I've recently substantially reconfigured the old indoor layout, abandoning any pretense at keeping it looking like a "serious"  model railroad; I've  removed virtually all the R1 curves from the indoor layout, other a small oval whose use will be confined strictly to smaller equipment.  The reconfiguration is aimed at making it better suited as how it's actually been used the past several years, strictly as a storage yard & indoor test / repair track for equipment that actually runs outdoors.

                                                                                                                      Tom