Baltimore & Ohio EM1 2-8-8-4

[bnoem1]

Just got mine in the mail today.  I ecstatic as I began to open the locomotive packaging and look through the parts sheet.  This is arguably the best N scale locomotive period that has been produced to date!  Bachmann, you have hit a grandslam!  The loco runs so smoothly and the detailing is just as good as my brass 2-6-6-6.  I will stop because I'm still drooling.  If I were just starting out in hobby and was thinking of steam this would be the one to buy.  Bachmann you have topped all competitors with this amazing model.

[DaaSchoe]

Do you know the minimum radius for the EM! in N gauge?

[skipgear]

Do you know the minimum radius for the EM! in N gauge?

I haven't tested mine yet but a few people have quoted that it runs fine on 11 1/4 and struggles on 9 3/4 which makes sense, Bachmann doesn't make anything smaller than 11 1/4.

[brokemoto]

I think that Bachmann recommends a seventeen inch curve.  The recommended minimum for articulateds in HO is thirty inches which works out to be 16,33125 inches in N.  Seventeen inches works out to 31,228 inches in HO.  Broad curves in HO are considered thirty or more inches.   Bachpersonn sells a seventeen inch and fifteen inch EZ-TRAK.  Fifteen inches works out to 27.5545 inches in HO.  A twenty seven inch curve falls in the middle of the 'conventional' category in HO.

A poster on another forum stated that his ran smoothly through eleven inch curves, and did not derail on an eleven inch S curve.  If he is using B-mann EZ-TRAK, it would be 11,25 inches.  Eleven inches would be 20,206 inches in HO; 11,25 inches would be 20,665 inches.  Both of those curve radii fall into the middle of the 'sharp' category in HO (eighteen to twenty three inches).

I would guess that it would look better on a seventeen or more inch curve.  It probably looks rather silly on an eleven inch curve.