Dick, I concur entirely with your approach. If I ever do get an S scale layout
built, concealed curves will have fairly tight radii. My experience parallels
yours in terms of operation being very reliable on tight curves if spiral
easements are religiously employed. In addition, I favor using somewhat tighter
(10% or so) radii where needed on curves which are seen from the concave side.
To my eye, passenger trains viewed form the convex side of a curve are the
limiting factor visually.
Fred T in Tennessee
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Karnes <[email protected]>
To: S-Scale <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, Nov 7, 2012 1:58 am
Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: Radius Roll Call
Fred T. et al --
You can resolve the conflict between appearance and radius limitations by
putting your necessarily sharp return curves inside hills or behind viewblocks,
and using large flowing curves where your trains are visible. For example, my
only curves smaller than 48" are in my hidden staging-yard loop, and they are
as tight as 33 inches. There are no visual problems with 85-foot passenger
cars on the portions of my layout that visitors see, and no operational
problems on my 33-inch curves because I have spiral easements entering and
leaving these sharp curves. (Note: No special coupler mounts are needed on my
long cars -- Just standard Kadee 802/808 boxes rigidly attached to carbodies.)
Dick Karnes
