36'' diameter and Williams BL2

[steveeusd]

Hello--

I just acquired a Williams BL2.  It fights 31" diameter, O scale curve. 

How well will it negotiate a 36" diameter radius curve?  Has anyone actually tried this?

Thanks,

Steve W.

[phillyreading]

Have you tried using half straights between the the curve tracks as this will take some of the tightness out of the curve. The other thing to do is to go up to a larger curve, Lionel has 042 and 054 in O gauge, Atlas has 036 curves in their track.
Gargraves makes curves in O gauge in sizes; 032(actually 32.25 inches), 042 (actually 42.5 inches), 060, 072 and up to 118 inch curves. However Gargraves will need adapter pins for their track to regular O gauge track.
I use 031 curves for my SD-45's by Williams, and no derailments, but they look and act better on 042 curves. A BL-2 should work on 031.

Lee F.

[r0gruth]

I do not have a BL2 but I have one Williams loco that had some difficulty on O-42 curves and I knew that it shouldn't.
The wiring from one of the trucks was wrapped to tight..I loosened thhe ties that were used and pulled out a little more wire and had no more problems.You can tell if this is a problem by holding the loco upside down and rotating the trucks to each side.If they resist or snap back rather quickly that will indicate the above problem.

[phillyreading]

Something similar that I did to at least one of my Williams engines, was to cut the plastic tie-down that was holding the wires against the motors, used a small pair of diagonal cutting pliers. This gives the wires more room to move.

Lee F.

[3rail]

The BL2 will easily run on O-27 track.  Take the loco off of the track and pivot each truck by hand. If it has some resistance in one direction, the wires are probably secured too tightly.  Remove the body shell and pull a little slack in the wire.

Regards,

3rail

[r0gruth]

Well how about that?We all seem to agree.So far.

[M1FredQ]

Can the Williams full scale Hudson's negotiate the Lionel Fas-Track?

[phillyreading]

Lionel's Fastrac is 036 curves(036 min. and 048 next size, and 072), so the Hudson most likely will negotiate the curve.

Lee F.

[DominicMazoch]

If you can find it, Marx did make O-27 profile curve track in O-34 curves.  Marx has black ties with blue center rail insulators.  3 ties per curve is 27, 4 is 34.

[SantaFe158]

Can the Williams full scale Hudson's negotiate the Lionel Fas-Track?

I run my Williams 773 hudson on my Lionel FT O-36's regularly.  It works OK (doesn't look so great) and I haven't really had any derailments yet.  Not sure if the one labeled "Scale" hudson will because it has the full scale tender that the 773 doesn't have.

[phillyreading]

I run most of my trains on Gargraves 042 curves and switches.

Lee F.