dear all wow, what a rebound to my question. Thank you very much :tb-smile: Well, currently, I have 120 cm diameter (approx 48'') available on my layout. I will start with a wider radius in the front and then change to a thighter in the back, but I try to keep a minimum of 40 cm. By the way, the calculation cm into inches is inches x 2,5 = cm approx. In Switzerland, there are many north american train enthusiats. We enjoy the great diversity of trains and layouts, landscapes and so on. But also the trainlengt are very impressive. A large freight train in Switzerland has about 40 - 50 cars :tb-sad:. However, I use Katotracks. I prefer Kato engines and Kato streamliners - in the rolling stock I prefer Microtrain, Kato or Atlas. Bachmann is also not bad though. Alongside of US trains, I also bought the Shinkansen Nozomi 500 Series (16 cars !). Looks very nice and the quality is also Kato standard. Is it possible to post photos in this board? Again thanks alot for all your help and advice. Best regards md11 PS: I hope everybody is allowed to understand my english - I will do my best :tb-embarrassed::tb-embarrassed:
md- Don't worry about your English. Our UK members still don't understand (and neither do I) many of our US members.
I try and keep all my radii 15" and up on my layout. My main is 17" and up and my sidings/yard is a little tighter than 15" and my mining/logging line is more like 11" I don't think the bigboy will ever be going up to the mine I would love to have everything 18" and up but on a 4 by 8 layout that just isn't practical if you want visual interest and running diversity. I also have one section of 4% grade that will mainly be used as a down from the upper level and will be hidden by a tunnel for most of the 2" climb. I understand what people say about no grades over 2% and no radii under 18" and on a big layout I totally agree!! but on small layouts if you are modeling the west with a lot of gradient changes it just isn't practical on small layouts.
Oh, I just realised that I have made a terrrrrible mistake. It should be read "be able to understand my english, not "be allowed":tb-embarrassed::tb-embarrassed: Well, I have attached two pics showing my old trainlayout before I had to move in another town. Unfortunately, I had to sell this layout:tb-sad:. It was in H0 scale. I hope that I find another room in my new area here to build a large N-layout with radiis of minimum 40'' or more. best regards md11
