Cornered

I've been carrying out some tests as part of planning for (potential) future projects in O9. Looking at what I have achieved in 13" x 19" in 009 I am keen to see if something similar is possible in the larger scale in a just little more space. My 009 layout 'The Old Quarry Line' uses a 4.5"radius curve and I know that most of the O9 locos struggle with this, especially longer 4-wheel ones as it throws the couplings too far out on the curves.

So I laid a 6" radius test piece, added power connections and had a play. With diesel testing out of the way I decided to see if 'St Edwin' the Exmoor 0-6-2 could cope with it...

This is probably the limit this loco should go down to, and probably not something I'd want to see in a visible part of a layout, as the swing out is noticeable. The couplings are almost at their limit here on both loco and wagon but it does show the flexibility of the MicroTrains design.

I then relaid the curve to 5.5" just to see what happened... 

Colin