Quick Big Boy question

shaygetz

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May 2, 2003
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Dick's right, the folks at Rivarossi made that booger to take 18" radius curves:thumb: Just make sure you set all scenery at least a foot away from the track around curves cuz that hoss'll take 'em out.:D
 

ed acosta

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Aug 4, 2005
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Radius

I had success running the Rossi UP Challenger on 18" radius on a club modular. Looks really cool and I was surprised that the centipede tender seemed to have no problems. Furthermore, Rossi seems to ignore uneven track, due in part to the larger wheel flanges. BUT the Big Boy has one additional axle per truck. I say 22"r min., especially if you are using the newer RP25 wheels.

Ed Acosta
 

Agamemnon

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May 18, 2006
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Well, that's Europeans for you... Pretty much everything we make tends to be workable on 18" curve (mostly because the grand majority of Euro layouts use curves in the 15-18-22) range.
 

Agamemnon

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May 18, 2006
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I actually have an old Rivarossi catalogue on my shelf, which cites something like a 420mm minimum radius for the Big Boy. I can't imagine it looking very good going through that, or being all that stable.

They needed to build it like that for the Euro market, because many of even the largest of our display and club layouts don't go much broader than 18-22 inches. Most of our locos and rolling stock is short compared to yours and consequently have less problems with tight turns. Architecture plays a part, too, with European houses being smaller and having a lot less basements or double garages. And, of course, the German hobby is extremely collecting-oriented, with less emphasis on operations and layout design.
 

stuart_canada

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Feb 12, 2005
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if your going to run something that size 22 is the bare min you require you will have a lot of hang over the tracks, i would go bigger then 22, nothing smaller then 24 or 26 to make it look better