Locomotives for 18R

[VTBob]

Hello,

What locomotives can run/will run on an 18R code 83 curve? Due to some space limitations I had to include some 18R curves on my Greensboro Bend (VT) (STJ & LC) layout. Just looking for a list of what I might be able to run up that way? I would assume any 4 axle diesel, not a 6 axle, but more in the ways of what steam can I run?

Thanks,
Rob

[BobZ]

Bachmann 4-4-0, 0-6-0, 2-6-0, 4-6-0, 2-6-2, 2-8-0, 2-8-2 listed as working on 18"R. When you step up to a 2-8-4 you may need to go to 22"R.  Now this is Code 100 track. Code 83 may be completely different.

[jward]

Any 4 axle diesel up to and including GP40s will work well on 18r. Also, small 6 axles like the SD9, SD35, Alco RSD5, FM Train Master. Basically, anything up to about 60 scale feet in length. But with the longer engines you have to be careful not to couple them to short cars like ore cars of they will derail on curves. I am running all of the above on handlaid code 83 track with 18r curves.

[Tenwheeler01]

My layout has 18" min on the mainline and one siding with a 15" curve into it. (Atlas HO-35)

Here is a list of locos I own that run on my layout (This is a list of what will run, not if it looks good on the curves).

Bachmann
2-10-0, USRA 2-8-2, 2-8-0,USRA 4-6-2, 2-8-4, 4-8-2LT, 4-8-2Hv(Had to remove all binding in the tender trucks)
ATH/MDC
2-6-0, 0-6-0
BLI
2-8-0, 2-8-2HV, 4-6-4BG, 4-6-4CV, 2-8-8-2
IHC
4-6-2, 4-6-4
MTH
4-8-8-2CF, 4-12-2  (these two have major overhang even on 22" and 24" curves)

The ATH 2-6-0, 0-6-0, Bachmann 2-10-0, 2-8-0 will run though the 15" siding. 

I have not tested any of the Bli's on the 15" siding. 

[trainman203]

I have a 28" radius curve.  The other major curve is 22 inch radius. I don't like the way the mikados and the 4-8-2 look even on the 28" radius curve, and hardly ever run them.  The same thing goes for passenger cars 70 feet and longer.  They just don't look right, look like toys.  Which they really are, of course, but that's another discussion.

[trainman203]

I only remember the St John and Lamoille County (hope I got that right) having very light consolidations which were were probably ex-Boston and Maine engines.  These engines and their trains of the period were very thoroughly photographed by Beebe and Clegg back in the 1940s and were in a book I had called When Beauty Rode the Rails.  While  I don't have the book, I bet there's a lot of coverage in their book Mixed Train Daily too.

Nice choice of a prototype to model. Although I'm very partial to Dixie short lines, the St.J.& L.C. is very much my kind of line serving my kind of territory. Not very many people know about that Railroad anymore.

[VTBob]

I model the St. J &LC because I live in Saint Albans VT, where they used to come in off the CV-Richford Sub. I don't know how many times I've traveled up route 36 (Richford sub) & followed the STJ&LC route from Swanton VT out to St. Johnsbury. I model the years 1930 - 1960, only because for a branch line railroad, they had some of the best scenery, not to forget motive power. I've got a few B15 Moguls, as well as the typical 70 tonner units. It's not a terribly large layout, but mine is a branch line off the main line part. I'd share progress pictures, but cannot figure out how to attach pictures here.

[jward]

Pretty much anything the real StJ&LC ran including its successors as well, would run well on 18r. I visited the line in 1979 when it was the Lamoille Valley, and they were running RS3s at that time. Will you have a covered bridge on your layout?

[trainman203]

I too thought about the wooden covered bridges in all of the Beebe and Clegg photographs.  I had a job in rural New England 50 years ago and saw a few of them, although for roads.  They are truly wonderful creations.

I used to wonder why we didn't have any wooden covered bridges on the railroads down south here. At least any that I knew of. But railroad construction was much earlier up in the east.  Nearly all railroad construction down here was after the "Late Unpleasantness", especially war-damage replacement, and metal truss and deck bridge technology had begun to develop by then.

[VTBob]

Pretty much anything the real StJ&LC ran including its successors as well, would run well on 18r. I visited the line in 1979 when it was the Lamoille Valley, and they were running RS3s at that time. Will you have a covered bridge on your layout?

I actually do. -- I built the Swanton covered bridge out of balsa wood & It's about 32inches in length. It's currently getting added to my main layout (this afternoon actually)

There's still the Fisher covered bridge in place in Wolcott VT, but they've torn up the rails & changed the outside cladding. It doesn't have the same look as it did when rail ran through it, but I have so many photographs of the line back when it was railroad.