8 1/2" radious

[plas man]

here you should see the 0-6-0 switcher and old timers on tight curves , use long couplers and slight trim to tender front/cab roof .


https://www.flickr.com/photos/seacote_lad/32701160833/in/dateposted-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/seacote_lad/33515871845/in/dateposted-public/

[brokemoto]

here you should see the 0-6-0 switcher and old timers on tight curves , use long couplers and slight trim to tender front/cab roof .

How do you manage to get that train up a grade with the stock tender?  If I use a SPECTRUM tender, not only will it climb the hill, it gets better electrical contact.  I must admit that the stock live truck and drawbar does not perform poorly, when you consider what it is, but the all wheels live and needlepoint axle pick-up on the SPECTRUM tender renders far better performance than does the stock tender.

Nice looking pike.

[plas man]

hi Brokemoto , the layout is a secondary line above my main layout and is 2 tracks on the level although one above the other , also I have the latest 4-4-0 Bachmann and to enable tight curves you need to trim the inside (cut in half) off the cylinders to enable the front truck to pivot the drive shaft do not need to be altered . again using the long EZ coupler on tender .
Also one 0-6-0 is Durango and Silverton set and other is pizza cutter wheels and both locos have center wheel flange removed with help from Unimat 3 lathe .

[brokemoto]

Oh, so it does not have to climb a hill.

Blinding the drivers is one way to get some of that power around a tight curve.  Even the prototypes did it.  The Pennsylvania blinded one of the middle driver pairs on some of its consolidateds.   The Athearn MDC 1880s 2-8-0 comes with both middle driver pairs blinded.  The 2-6-0 has the middle pair blinded.

I have managed to run the B-mann eight wheeler around a seven and something curve (the inner curve of the Kato UNITRAM) without problem.   Six inches in N scale is pretty tight.  That is equivalent to just over eleven inches in HO.  I seem to recall that the old HO Mantua
0-4-0T kit would go around an eight inch curve, but anything much larger than a small switcher would require modification.

[kmcsjr]

Because, I'm running a lot of small trains, I'll come back to this.... Atlas/MicroAce 2-6-0 Mogul (that isn't reviewed as the best runner... is doing really nicely on 8 1/2" radius.

C'mon Bach Man! Get developing small stuff!

[brokemoto]

.... Atlas/MicroAce 2-6-0 Mogul (that isn't reviewed as the best runner...

C'mon Bach Man! Get developing small stuff!

The latest version of the B-mann 1870s eight wheeler is actually pretty good.  Buy the version that comes in the plastic box.  The problem with the Atlas/Micro-Ace mogul is that only one "truck" on the tender is live.  Because the electrical contact is so limited, the thing will stall of straight and level at speeds of twenty-five SMPH or less.  The thing runs nicely--when it runs.  The only thing that will save the Atlas mogul is hardwiring it to a live boxcar, caboose or baggage car.


Fortunately, Atlas did address the problem with its eight wheeler.  All of the "trucks" on the tender are live on that one.   All of the tender trucks on the B-mann eight wheeler are live, as well.  Those on the Bachpersonn pivot, as well, which neither of the Atlas do.

The Micro-Ace is an actual model that it did for the market in Japan.  It is based on a 2-6-0 that Baldwin built for Japan in the 1870s.  One prototype does survive.  As I understand it, Atlas approached Micro-Ace with the idea of hanging nineteenth century U.S. and Canada road names on it.  Micro-Ace agreed, as long as no alterations were made to the basic model.   Thus, the only two wheels live on each pole.


The Atlas/Micro-Ace is yet another illustration of Miranda's Maxim as explained by ke:   "The poor performance of many N scale steam locomotives is almost always attributable to poor electrical contact."

The funny thing is that Miranda's Maxim applies less to the Bachmann eight wheeler.  The contact has been the same throughout the various versions of this one.  There is only so much contact that you can get out of something so small.  The problem for years with the B-mann eight wheeler was its construction.  The things used to wobble quite a bit.  In addition, the performance varied wildly model-to-model.  GF has one that will hold a steady twenty five SMPH and pull fifteen nineteenth century cars of various manufacture, on MT trucks, up a one per-cent grade.  I wonder if the prototype would do that.  I had one or two that could not get out of their own way and had only two speeds:  very fast and not-at-all.

I recall seeing a Disney display at a World's Greatest Hobby On Tour show.  They had a B-mann N scale eight wheeler that was operating quite smoothly at fifteen SMPH and pulling several cars on a roundy-round.  I asked someone at the display about it.  He got one of the technicians for me who went into quite a bit of detail on how they had re-worked the thing to get the wobble out of it.

Shortly after that, a cardboard box version of the eight wheeler appeared that showed a marked improvement.   In fact, I put a MT coupler on one and was using it to switch cars on my nineteenth century pike.  Since then, B-mann has done another wave of improvements to this one.  The plastic box version of it is the latest.  It is very good.  If you have not tried it, you should.

[kmcsjr]

I'm running the latest DCC equipped Spectrum 2-6-0 on 8 1/2 radius tonight. It's creeping along nicely!