New Shay locomotives

[spereira]

I am quite excited to see new Shay locomotives coming sometime soon.

I looked in my 2026 catalog, and I saw that Bachmann says, "Performs best on 22" radius curves or greater."

Since I started back in January with a Thoroughbred starter set, all the track I've purchased for my setup have been 18" radius curves.

Does this mean that I'm out of luck?  What would be expected to happen if I go ahead and buy it anyway?  Constant derailments?  Problems with my turnouts?

Thanks very much in advance for your advice.

smp

[AVRProject]

Shays were meant to 'in real life' operate tight switchback, poorly built, temporary logging railroads.
Some even rode on wooden rails.  A lot of those abandoned logging railroads are now Jeep/ATV trails.

In real life, they used link/pin couplers and obsolete railcar frames they stripped down to haul logs.

You will be using knuckle couplers which may uncouple in tight curves, depending on what you're coupled to.
This is the defect you will see in using your 18" radius.  You can also buy 24" radius later to fix this.