The LNER Encyclopedia

Has anyone had a problem where you've bought a locomotive, only to find that it can't negotiate the curves on your layout? I've just bought an old Mainline Models N2 in 00, but its wheelbase is too long for my Hornby (go on, laugh) first radius curves. Would anyone know how to fix this? I'm thinking a flangeless wheelset is the most obvious solution, but I don't where I would get that kind of thing.

Are you stuck with the first radius curves? Most of the more detailed RTR models now won't go over less than 2nd radius.

You could take the centre drivers out and turn them down - stick them on an old axle in a minidrill and use a file or a lathe if you have one: you could reduce the back-to-back of the centre pair fractionally with them on the loco; you could bar it from that part of the layout.

You can get flangeless drivers (Mainly Trains) but you might have to change axles as well. I dont' know how hard one of those is to get to bits, never having owned one.

My 1st radiuses are inavoidable of the layout due to space constraints (thank the lord that Hornby's Pacifics have flangeless rear pony trucks...), so the locomotive has to be changed if it is to run on the layout at all. I don't really want to try to change the wheels I have either, as I'm not very confident with drills and things, so I'll go with buying new flangeless drivers thanks for the help!

If Hornby pacifics will go round, I can't see why the Mainline loco won't: what about increasing the sideplay on the front and rear coupled axles?

there's already quite a lot of sideplay. The Hornby Pacifics only go round because the newest ones include a flangeless rear pony truck wheelset. With the flanged pony truck, their minimum is 2nd radius.

I was thinking about the coupled wheelbase. I can't see that the N2 has a greater wheelbase than the pacifics, so it seems odd that they will drag their drivers round the curve but the tank engine won't.

the N2 has a considerably longer coupled wheelbase than the A3, even if it doesn't look like it. On the hornby A3, the ability to move round 1st radius curves is only hampered due to the limited sideways movement of the rear Cartazzi truck, which is semi-fixed due to the extra detail that has gone into it. My old A3 has a less detailed, more freely moving rear axle, and it moves round 1st radius easily. Every time my N2 goes on the curve, the front axle pops off the rails.