I don't know if I'm just not looking in the right places or what but I can not seem to find a minimum radius for the Bachmann Forney.I'm not worried about mainline radius as we are using standard 4' NRAK modules,but we may have some tight curves on the branch lines.
Dear Catt,
The 2010 Catalog calls out 18"R or greater.
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
Thanks Joe,I will file that away for future use.Layout is at least a month away from rail traffic.
Whilst the Min Rad for the Forney is quoted as 18", it will actually traverse tighter curves than that,
15" is no problem and i know a guy who has an approx 13" rad curve on a siding which the Forneys will run on,
The only proviso to this is the overhang of the loco on small curves can cause derailment of vehicles coupled to the loco, the way to get round this is to fit a coupling to the vehicles with a longer length, (see Kadee list)
A good way to actually test locos on small radii, is to either obtain a few pieces of set track in various curve radius ( over here in the UK PECO do 15" & 18" 22" etc) and test the locos on these alternatively use a yard length of fleixible track and temporarily pin it to a sheet of board at various radii.
I find that several other 0n30 locos will take smaller curves than the stated minimum
hope this helps
Hopefully we won't have any curves smaller than 18",but it is nice to know the Forney will take them if necessary.Thanks for the input Steve.
Quote from: Catt on November 19, 2013, 07:30:48 AM
Hopefully we won't have any curves smaller than 18",but it is nice to know the Forney will take them if necessary.Thanks for the input Steve.
No Problem
Incidentally the Forney has no problems with derailing of the coupled cars on tight curves if the cars are the new 18' ones!
Just as a matter of interest when i am laying flexible track which i am doing right now! I use known radius Set track curves as a template to ensure that I am not going too tight, simply position the setrack curve and chalk around the inside & outside edges, this gives an indication of where proposed should be, so i know its ok to go outside the chalk lines, but not go inside them!
Hi,
there are made alredy many topics for the Forney minimum radii and rear coupler. Go to "search" on top of this page an search for " Forney radii", "Forney rear coupler" or "Forney derail". You will find a lot of answers for a solution of this problem.
See also http://www.freerails.com/view_topic.php?id=985&forum_id=6
Railexpert
Another way of keeping the track to the correct curve is using the sweepsticks sold by Fast Tracks!
http://www.handlaidtrack.com/Fast-Tracks-SweepSticks-Laser-Cut-Track-Form-for-HO-s/2208.htm (http://www.handlaidtrack.com/Fast-Tracks-SweepSticks-Laser-Cut-Track-Form-for-HO-s/2208.htm)
Happy railroading!
Forney coupled nose first is much less likely to derail cars.
One could offset the issue at the rear with a long shank shelf coupler.
I found that when operating my Forneys on our module club's layout, the couplers would shift vertically out of the knuckle of the first car next to the loco, when crossing over module joints that were barely (almost imperceptibly) out of level. Our modules use a 22" minimum radius, which is pretty tight, but the real problem was the vertical traveling of the Forney's coupler, which made it impossible to reliably pull a train. By replacing the factory coupler's knuckle with one of the extended knuckles sold by Jerry Kitts at Foothill Models, the problem was pretty much alleviated. These knuckles will probably also be helpful for the front couplers of the 4-4-0's (especially the outside frame version) as well.
Bill in FtL