ON30 Trolley sharpest radius, track in brick and switches

[GorreJim]

Setting up a City transit loop, with a freight line (later).

- What is the tightest radius the Bachman On30 4 wheel streetcar can turn ?
- Any recommendations for brick (street) surface ?
- Any prefab (rail ?) switches, or, at this tight radius, is it all custom ?
(Recommendations, please)

Thanks

GJ

[amdaylight]

I haven’t tried to see how tight of a curve the little trolley will do but I would imagine that it will go around something like 6 to 8 inches. As to the brick street surfaces you will probably have to pour something like plaster over the street area and then carve the bricks / cobblestones you’re self. One reason I recommend this is that trying to get a plastic sheet to meet the rail tightly and with out gaps is an almost impossible task. Another problem is that the first few courses of brick usually ran parallel the rail, and the brick between the rails could either be parallel with the rail or at ninety degrees to it. As to track work most of this would be in custom built class due to the radiuses and the style of switches which would most likely be of the single point style. Now if you want to run a freight operation over this track then you are back to an 18 inch minimum radius which is about as tight as the Bachmann cars will go around.

You might look for the old Kalmbach book on trolleys and interurbans, it has a lot of good information on both the track and the over head wiring. It will also show you how to do your streets,

Andre

[Frisco]

I have heard the trolley can do 3 inch . As for the brick walthers makes it ready made in a sheat , you just have to cut it . It should be in the 2008 catilog or on there web site .

[ebtnut]

Prototypically, 4-wheel trolleys were limited to about a 30-foot radius.  This works out to 7 1/2" in O scale.  Not sure offhand what the Walthers pre-fab street trackage uses for min. radius.  It is actually an HO item, though you should be able to get away with it for O, though the street width would most likely limit it to one-way traffic in real life.