Page 1 of 1

24 radius setter

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 5:56 am
by wingnut
Hi

I am building a small raised garden railway on reclaimed narrow gauge sleepers from a mine, part of it is going around a pond built of these sleepers, this limits the radius I can use to slightly less than 30 inches, I am going to use SM32 track and am looking for a supplier of a 24 inch radius setter, although 26 or 28 inch would probably be better. I know this will limit rolling stock, at the moment I have bought a RH Bulldog and have built some of the simpler IP wagons, I also have an MSS loco that I may just run off the track, in to the pond, as a home for Newts.

Any advice appreciated.

Mark

Re: 24 radius setter

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 7:10 am
by philipy
Mark, tbh, I think you will be struggling with this small a radius.
Peco and Mamod both do 30" radius set track curves, but I don't know of anything smaller unless there is something from US or European manufacturers.
Similarly you can get templates at 30", and larger, to fit between the rails and hold alignment whilst you screw things down, but I don't know of one less than 30" off the shelf, although you might be able to make something yourself.
You could get a rail bender and pre-form the rails to whatever radius you want, but then trying to use the Peco sleepers would result in horrible gauge narrowing with that radius and I think you'd have terrible running issues, so you'd probably need to handbuild the sleepers to incorporate some gauge-widening.

I hope I don't appear to be negative and I also hope soembody else will tell us both that I'm wrong and 24" curves are readily available from ????, but I'd hate to see you wasting a lot of time and money on a white elephant.

Re: 24 radius setter

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 7:43 am
by tom_tom_go
Trying to pre bend Peco SM32 track under 30" will result in poorly formed track (I know because I have tried it). Nickel Silver code 200 is simply too thick and hard to bend cold (heating it up might help).

If you really want to go down to such a tight radius (which I don't recommend) then try using aluminium?

Have a look at what Greg has been up to:

https://gardenrails.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=12349

Re: 24 radius setter

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 11:13 am
by MRail
Have a look at Marcway of Sheffield:-
http://marcway.net/list2.php?col=head&n ... +Templates

They list a 24" template.
It's do-able if you use a rail bender. Bending by hand/knee WILL result in steps in the curve.
Take the rail out of the sleeper base, make the curve and re-insert the rail, with a spray of WD40 or similar.
It helps to file the end corners of the rail to form a "lead".

You will have to limit your choice of loco & stock to suit.

Re: 24 radius setter

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 11:24 am
by philipy
Well done Rob. I KNEW somebody would prove me wrong! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Even with a rail bender and short stock, I still think gauge narrowing will be a problem at that radius.

Re: 24 radius setter

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 11:39 am
by tom_tom_go
If you fancy making your templates for free use the AnyRail software and print the required radius track 1:1 scale then stick to a piece of wood, cardboard, etc:

www.anyrail.com

Re: 24 radius setter

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:04 pm
by MRail
Going back some way, the long-defunct Faller eTrain system used set track of even tighter radius.
Various items still appear for auction.
Small battery locos were quite happy on it. Don't think I ever tried steam.
Found an old pic of the track, but no stock on it:-

[attachment=0]MR070811-04.jpg[/attachment]

Buffer overhang is another consideration.

Re: 24 radius setter

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 1:18 pm
by Busted Bricks
If a radius setter is what I think it is, I can laser cut any radius you want from mild steel or stainless steel.

I have some Faller track and it is quite a tight radius but OK for small diesel outline locomotives. It comes up for sale on German Ebay all the time - I bought a lot while living in Germany but sold most of it again as I'm going to the dark side (7/8ths on 45mm track).

Re: 24 radius setter

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:07 am
by wingnut
Thanks for all the really helpful replies,

It seems like a 24 inch radius is possible, but I think I can just expand the side of the pond a little and fit 30 inch radius set curves, I will then have some room for a small station and siding as things develop. I can always look at running something a little tighter inside at a later date when I have a bit more experience.

Thanks again for the help and offers of assistance.

Mark Appleby