inner loop

[longhaul]

Picked up a new Bachmann Thoroughbred train set today in Lakeland Fl. Hobby Town. I am limited for space and working with a 48 x 48 layout 18 radius curve track. Does anyone know can I use the 15" radius for a inner loop?
longhaul

[J3a-614]

With the equipment you have in that set, you should be able to use 15" radius curves.  At the same time, equipment like that is about as big as you would want to use on that tight a curve.

Longer cars and locomotives can have problems on such tight track.  One is just negotiating it, especially in some cases with limited coupler swing, and sometimes just with wheel swing going far enough to hit things like the center sill.

Another thing to watch out for is swing-out, especially for really long cars like 89-foot flat cars and full-length passenger cars.  Outer corners swing out, and the center swings in, and the amount of ground they can cover can be surprising.  Means you have to watch out for things like structures and scenic items near the track, and especially the behavior of trains running on adjacent tracks in a curve.  You can get some awful grinding sounds and occasionally derailments in that situation! 

The real roads had to deal with that, too, even with much more generous curve radii than the trolley curves we use on most of our model layouts.  And of course trolleys, both real and model, go around really tight curves, and you have to watch for that there as well, even with the relatively small size of such cars. 

A real trolley, by the way, may have to negotiate curves as tight as 35-foot radius in street trackage.  That's in the real world.  That translates to a curve of only 4.8 inches in HO scale, and is tighter than the 6-inch minimums that many HO trolleys will negotiate!

[Doneldon]

long-

Try using 22" radius on your outer loop and 18" radius on your
inner loop. You'll have a little wider selection of equipment but,
more important, better operating reliability.
                                                                    -- D

[longhaul]

Good idea , thanks for your suggestion.
Larry

[HOART]

As a side note . I have a 15" HO  radius inside an 18" radius loop ( 12 sections each )  Bachmann does not offer a 15" connector rerailer .  I used an Atlas 842 HO rail joiner .Don't even think of using long cars .On the 15" radius loop I only use a Bachmann trolley . Talk about small .The two loops I just described are on a 38" X 38" platform . Have fun !

[longhaul]

What does the 842 Atlas rail joiner do?? I like the idea of the rerailer on the 15 radius inner loop
Thanks for your suggestion, I will give it a try.
Larry

[HOART]

The rail joiner is nothing more than two wires .Each one has a clip that slides on the track rails where the EZ track section connect together .If you send me your email address I will  send you a photo of the two loops .Of course you can always solder the wires to each rail if you are good at that .I am not.
The Atlas connector might be hard to find due to the Atlas market right now .
I found mine on Ebay .They are cheap .Good luck ! Have fun !

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

long-

Try using 22" radius on your outer loop and 18" radius on your
inner loop. You'll have a little wider selection of equipment but,
more important, better operating reliability.
                                                                    -- D

Of course, if you do this on a 4-ft. by 4-ft. platform, your layout is literally a circle of track. At least if you use 18"-radius curves, you can use one 9-in. straight section on two sides of the layout to create an oval--or you can use a 9-in. straight section on all four sides to create sort of a square with rounded corners.

I guess it all depends on one's individual priorities. I haven't looked up Longhaul's "Thoroughbred" set, and it may well be that the set will operate better on 22"-radius curves.