Northfolk Southern Heritage Units

[Joe323]

Will these locos operate on 18" curves? And look OK doing so?

[jward]

no. they are way too big.

[Jerrys HO]

Joe,

When I had 18r, I ran my SD70's and SD40-2's with no problems. Although the overhang was not excessive it did look awkward.
My SD70 was an MTH and my SD40-2's are Bachmann.
I would suspect that the Bachmann SD70's should be able to handle 18r, but there's only one way to find out.

Jerry

[ACY]

I have these 5 NS heritage units, 4 SD70ACEs and 1 ES44AC






The Pennsylvania is the new Bachmann model while the other 4 are made by another company. Anyways I tested them out a few weeks ago and found that one of the MTH SD70ACE models would run on 18" radius but had significant overhang in my opinion. The other 3  and the Bachmann Pennsylvania unit will not run on 18" radius and consistently derail, 22" radius is a must for reliable operation of almost every locomotive with 6 axles. Even if it runs ok on 18" radius it still looks really bad with the overhang due to the length of most 6 axle locos.

[Joe323]

Thanks all I will stay with 4 axle units

[jward]

i would. to be honest the only 6 axle units i feel comfortable with on my layout's 18r curves are the atlas rsd5s. they are essentially an rs3 with 6 axle trucks, and while they are a bit pickier on trackwork than an rs3, they are the same length. length is what kills you using 6 axle units on 18r. most of them are too long to run without problems. even if they can run around the curves by themselves, they tend to derail the car coupled to them.