BLMA 52' Gon

[Mark5]

I think 11" will probably be as small a radius as these will go. And that's not bad.

At this point I'm done monkeying with the car, until I get some trackage in operation.

BLMA can improve this car on subsequent runs by reducing the size of the coupler cover plate in the key area (I probably removed more than needed in some areas).

I also think the coupler pocket could be moved toward the truck a little with no operational detriment - this would improve the "goose neck" appearance of the coupler (Robbman will tell if I'm full of it! ;D)

Mark

[MichaelWinicki]

I think 11" will probably be as small a radius as these will go. And that's not bad.

At this point I'm done monkeying with the car, until I get some trackage in operation.

BLMA can improve this car on subsequent runs by reducing the size of the coupler cover plate in the key area (I probably removed more than needed in some areas).

I also think the coupler pocket could be moved toward the truck a little with no operational detriment - this would improve the "goose neck" appearance of the coupler (Robbman will tell if I'm full of it! ;D)

Mark

11" radius isn't bad... If you don't have to grind away part of the coupler box in order to achieve that.   

[Dave V]

I haven't had any troubles with mine yet...  My minimum radius is 13" on the yard lead going into Enola.

11" is a bit tight.  Much like 22" and below in HO, once you cross that 11" threshold you're making significant compromises anyway in what you can or can't run.

Tough call.  On the one hand in general I'm not excited about compromising fidelity for the sake of allowing operation on compromised track (which in this case includes IMHO sharp radii on mainlines).  On the other, 11" and sharper are certainly reasonable for industrial trackage, especially places like steel mills, where a gon like this would be perfectly at home.

In this particular instance, though, it looks like the use of a slimmer draft gear box would allow that sharper radius operation without any compromise to the appearance of the car.

[John]

since these would be used in tight industrial areas such as scrap yards, the tight radius has to be a core requirement ..

[MichaelWinicki]

since these would be used in tight industrial areas such as scrap yards, the tight radius has to be a core requirement ..

I was thinking that too.

[Craig Martyn]

Been watching this thread and taking notes, plus talking with our factory.

It appears that between our drawings and production, the coupler lid changed slightly from our original design.  From the notes here, it appears as though the radius is good < ~13".  We are looking into making changes for future runs.  Thanks for the notes!

[MichaelWinicki]

I received a batch of Atlas metal lo-pros for MT trucks and tried those in a half-dozen gons.

Remember I had replaced the BLMA metal wheelsets with MT plastic lo-pros... And I had better performance, i.e. far few issues keeping the gons on the tracks.

The performance took another leap forward when I added a 1/4 ounce of weight to each car.  I could back up the gons through a series of #5 Atlas code 55 switches with no problems.  And I could navigate some tighter than 13" radius industrial trackage without cars hitting the ground.

I thought the Atlas metal wheelsets would perform as well as the MT plastic wheelsets... Maybe even better, being that they would add even a little more weight to the car.

No dice. 

And it wasn't a case of the wheelsets not fitting, the gons rolled well with the Atlas metal wheels.  They just were a step down from the performance I was getting with the plastic lo-pros. 

I switch out the Atlas metal for the MT plastic wheelsets once again, and everything was again working well. 

Maybe BLMA would make the smaller coupler covers available to us that would like them... I would even pay something for them in order to get enough to do the gons I have.

[lock4244]

Sorry to get off topic, but I occurs to me... Craig, you really need to do a 50' boxcar, bulkhead flat or a modern tankcar (1970's or newer). That'd probably blow our minds.