Locomotive Height

[srrailroader]

I have just been gifted a full kit for the Garden Texture 35" 'Town Lattice Truss' Covered Bridge.  This kit is full size at 1:24 scale.  Most of my locomotives are Bachmann Spectrum in 1:20.3 scale, although I do have some Big Haulers, some Kalamazoo's and a LGB Mogul and a couple other odds and ends.  My question is whether my Spectrums might be too high to run through the bridge?  My engines are one Ely-Thomas Shay, one Pardee & Curtin Shay, one Pardee & Curtin Climax, two 1876 Baldwin Narrow Gauge Americans, one 1876 Baldwin Narrow Gauge Mogul, one Baldwin 1920 era Consolidation, and one Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes #12 Forney.  Which of these engines is the tallest, from rail head to top of stack or top of cab roof?  Will I need to make the columns of the bridge taller?  Or will these engines all run through the bridge without interference?  I do have quite a bit of salvaged Redwood and some very nice pieces of cedar from which I could cut new (longer) pieces to make the interior height of the bridge larger, but if there is enough clearance using the pieces in the kit, I would prefer using them instead of cutting new ones.  I was planning on using the stock I have on hand to build the trestle I need.  Anyway, I was hoping I could find out what the dimension is for the tallest locomotive I have without unboxing them all to measure them myself. 

[JerryB]

I would suggest asking Bob Kelley at Garden Texture either by email:

[email protected]

--or--

Phone: 704-847-7169

Bob has always provided additional information and has made suggestions for the kits I have built. I'm certain he will have the answer to your questions and (if necessary) can probably suggest a work around to raise the height.

Happy RRing,

Jerry

[Chuck N]

Measure the height of your boxes.  Open up the box with the tallest height.  In all likely hood that will have the tallest engine.

My guess is that the Shay's are the tallest.  The Shay box I have is a little under 11 inches tall and the engine is about 8".  My Shay came with three different stacks.  With the short stack I'm using the highest part is the "brass" fixtures on the top of the steam dome.

I would add a minimum of an inch to the highest engine.  This would most likely give you enough clearance for any future engines.

Chuck

PS: I wouldn't trust anyone to make these measurements for me. 

[Jon D. Miller]

Check here for some of the information you seek.

http://www.grblogs.com/index.php/bachmannlocomotives/?blog=4

Tabulated data is included for the Bachmann locomotives contained in this GRBLOG.

JD

[Chuck N]

One other thing that I should have mentioned is the width of the opening into the covered bridge.  My Bachmann Shay (1:20.3) is about 4.75" wide while my LGB mogul (1:22.5/24 (?))is 4.25" wide. 

If you have a curve leading into the bridge you will need an opening even wider than 5" to take care of the overhang of the engines and cars.  The opening should be at least 5.25" wide if not wider.  I would probably go with 5.5 or 6" just to be on the safe side, if the track is straight coming into and out of the bridge.  If it is curved you will have to experiment to see how much overhang you have.

I have read comments from people on the "mylargescale.com" forum that they had to redo all their clearances and abutments when they went from 1:22.5/24 to 1:20.3.

I had to move some rocks near the track back when I started running my USAt streamliners. The center of the car was hitting the rocks, because of the length of these cars caused under hang on the inside of the curves to scrape the rocks.  I am using Aristocraft 5' radius curves.

Chuck

[glennk28]

THere are several places that can caujse interference. Cab height is only ther easy one.  Cab roof rear corner overhang, cylinder width, pilot (I had to remove the plow from one of my K-27's that hit switch machines  )  alsk check caboose steps.  gj