Bachmann's passenger cars run fine on 22" but Branchline's car derails though they claim in Walther's catalog to be made to operate on 22".
Anyone have experience with Branchline passengers on 22"?
Unfortunately, Bachmann seems to have left the PRR passenger era.
Ed

For Branchline passenger cars, 36 inch radius is needed if you want the steam lines and diaphragms on.   I believe you could get away with 30 inch radius if you remove these and notch the frame. Bachmann's are ifffy on 22 inch radius but are fine on 24" radius. Walther's are iffy on 24" radius and fine on 26" radius. Rapido's unmodified require about 28 to 30 inch radius, if you clip a bunch of the detail parts you can run them in about the range of 24 to 26 inch radius. Life-Like's passenger cars run fine on your target radius. Any cars shorter than 80 feet would easily run on 22" radius, unless they have unusual trucks.

One other thing.  you cannot run body mounted and truck mounted couplers together.

Quote from: ACY on June 18, 2011, 02:59:44 PM
For Branchline passenger cars, 36 inch radius is needed if you want the steam lines and diaphragms on.   I believe you could get away with 30 inch radius if you remove these and notch the frame. Bachmann's are ifffy on 22 inch radius but are fine on 24" radius. Walther's are iffy on 24" radius and fine on 26" radius. Rapido's unmodified require about 28 to 30 inch radius, if you clip a bunch of the detail parts you can run them in about the range of 24 to 26 inch radius. Life-Like's passenger cars run fine on your target radius. Any cars shorter than 80 feet would easily run on 22" radius, unless they have unusual trucks.

Do you actually have a set of Rapido coaches? I have a set and I can run the set on 22" without any problem. No doubt the coaches look better on wider curves but myself and others are running on 22" without any problems.

Which ones do you have Supercontinental Line, Osgood Bradley, or LRC? I have Erie and Erie Lackawanna supercontinetal ones. Do yours have standard or long shank couplers? Do yours have all detail parts in tact or added? When did you buy yours/ which run are they?
All I know is that the ones I have with all detail parts in tact and Kadee #148 couplers require about 28" radius to run trouble free. As mine are, they cannot even go on track that is 22" radius let alone run reliably on 22", if you removed most of detail parts for the undercarriage and installed long shank couplers that would probably allow for 22-24" radius or thereabouts. I don't have any 22" radius on my layout but have some 22" radius E-Z track that I setup occasionally for a test track and they immediately derailed when I tested them.
These are from the sets that I have:


Next weekend if you want I can take a photo of mine if you don't believe me.

Thanks for the interesting exchange on 22" curves. ACY, no need for photos as all responses convince me to put aside this interest in adding to my Bachmann PRR Keystone set and perhaps be lucky to find a diner and/or pullman at a show.
Ed

Quote from: ACY on June 19, 2011, 08:41:25 PM
Which ones do you have Supercontinental Line, Osgood Bradley, or LRC? I have Erie and Erie Lackawanna supercontinetal ones. Do yours have standard or long shank couplers? Do yours have all detail parts in tact or added? When did you buy yours/ which run are they?
All I know is that the ones I have with all detail parts in tact and Kadee #148 couplers require about 28" radius to run trouble free. As mine are, they cannot even go on track that is 22" radius let alone run reliably on 22", if you removed most of detail parts for the undercarriage and installed long shank couplers that would probably allow for 22-24" radius or thereabouts. I don't have any 22" radius on my layout but have some 22" radius E-Z track that I setup occasionally for a test track and they immediately derailed when I tested them.
These are from the sets that I have:


Next weekend if you want I can take a photo of mine if you don't believe me.

Gee, I wonder why the Rapido site indicates a minimum radius for the Super Continental cars?

Have you ever been to the Model Railroader site? They have two reviews on the first set of lightweight cars, both reviews indicate minimum radius to be 18"

Quote from: Pacific Northern on June 19, 2011, 11:02:02 PM
Gee, I wonder why the Rapido site indicates a minimum radius for the Super Continental cars?

Did you mean to say the site indicates a different minimum radius?

At any rate I have the papers to mine and they do not say they can run on 18" radius contrary to the site, the site states, "18 inch minimum radius for most cars (28 inch or greater recommended)." My cars though are from the original run and may include more or possibly different undercarriage detail than the newest run, or they could have altered them to accommodate a sharper radius. The new ones also supposedly ship with long shank couplers, mine only came with standard shank. But at any rate I can take a picture of the papers that came with mine that states that they require 24" minimum radius if you remove the undercarriage detail parts, or 28" unmodified.

Good Morning all,

       If your cars have diaphrams,  a fix that I have found that allows use down to 24 to 26 inch radius with some larger cars is to put a long shank coupler on one end of the cars.   Then couple the cars so that a long shank coupler is coupled to a standard shank coupler.   This allows for a greater distance between the cars without creating a hugh gap between the diaphrams.

If you're lucky enough to be able to keep your passenger trains connected, use dummy couplers or solid drawbars between them. The drawbars are especially good because they allow you to have as much spacing as you need without having more than yhou need. Be sure to use diaphragms to hide the drawbars a bit. If you have lights and the diaphragms don't touch, put a piece of something in the end door windows so you don't have lights flashing between your cars.
                                                                                                                                         -- D