Forney info

[Catt]

I don't know if I'm just not looking in the right places or what but I can not seem to find a minimum radius for the Bachmann Forney.I'm not worried about mainline radius as we are using standard 4' NRAK modules,but we may have some tight curves on the branch lines.

[Joe Satnik]

Dear Catt,

The 2010 Catalog calls out 18"R or greater. 

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

[Catt]

Thanks Joe,I will file that away for future use.Layout is at least a month away from rail traffic.

[Stevelewis]

Whilst  the  Min Rad  for  the  Forney  is  quoted  as  18", it will actually  traverse  tighter  curves  than  that,

15" is no problem  and  i know  a  guy  who  has  an approx 13" rad curve on a siding   which the  Forneys will run on,

The only proviso to this  is  the  overhang of the loco on  small curves  can cause  derailment  of vehicles  coupled to the loco,  the  way  to  get  round  this  is to  fit  a coupling  to the vehicles with a longer  length, (see Kadee list)

A good  way to actually  test  locos on  small radii, is to  either  obtain a few pieces of  set  track in various  curve radius ( over  here in the UK  PECO  do 15" & 18" 22" etc) and  test  the locos on these  alternatively use  a yard  length of  fleixible  track  and   temporarily  pin it to a sheet of  board at various  radii.

I find  that several other  0n30 locos  will take  smaller  curves  than  the  stated  minimum

hope this  helps

[Catt]

Hopefully we won't have any curves smaller than 18",but it is nice to know the Forney will take them if necessary.Thanks for the input Steve.

[Stevelewis]

Hopefully we won't have any curves smaller than 18",but it is nice to know the Forney will take them if necessary.Thanks for the input Steve.

No  Problem

Incidentally  the  Forney   has no problems   with derailing of  the  coupled  cars  on tight  curves  if  the  cars  are  the  new  18' ones!

Just  as  a  matter  of  interest  when  i  am laying  flexible  track  which i am  doing  right now!  I use known  radius  Set track  curves  as  a  template to ensure  that  I am not  going too tight,  simply  position the  setrack curve  and  chalk around the inside & outside  edges, this gives an indication of where proposed  should be, so i know  its  ok to  go outside the  chalk lines, but  not go inside  them!

[railexpert]

Hi,

there are made alredy many topics for the Forney minimum radii and rear coupler. Go to "search" on top of this page an search for " Forney radii",  "Forney rear coupler" or "Forney derail". You will find a lot of answers for a solution of this problem.

See also http://www.freerails.com/view_topic.php?id=985&forum_id=6

Railexpert

[BKJ]

Another way of keeping the track to the correct curve is using the sweepsticks sold by Fast Tracks!

http://www.handlaidtrack.com/Fast-Tracks-SweepSticks-Laser-Cut-Track-Form-for-HO-s/2208.htm

Happy railroading!

[lvrr325]

Forney coupled nose first is much less likely to derail cars.

One could offset the issue at the rear with a long shank shelf coupler. 

[railtwister]

I found that when operating my Forneys on our module club's layout, the couplers would shift vertically out of the knuckle of the first car next to the loco, when crossing over module joints that were barely (almost imperceptibly) out of level. Our modules use a 22" minimum radius, which is pretty tight, but the real problem was the vertical traveling of the Forney's coupler, which made it impossible to reliably pull a train. By replacing the factory coupler's knuckle with one of the extended knuckles sold by Jerry Kitts at Foothill Models, the problem was pretty much alleviated. These knuckles will probably also be helpful for the front couplers of the 4-4-0's (especially the outside frame version) as well.

Bill in FtL