Lionel or MTH diesels on 27 inch curve, help,

Hi folks, I am a newbie to this group and have a question,

Let me set the stage first, I have 027 track in the original 27 inch radius on my old Marx layout. The board is 4'X8' and the outer edge to outer edge measurement is 45 inches giving me 1.5 inches clearance to my safety sideboards, the same is true at the ends of the table. The marx engines clear with very little margin to spare. I borrowed a neighbors GP30 (may have been a 35) 4 axel Lionel diesel and it requires 1.75 inches of clearance toward the outside through the curve which at the moment I dont have.

Are there any lionel diesels or switchers available with smoke and proto type sound that will run on my current layout? I can probably move the wooden safety rails around the edge of the table out a quarter inch or so but I am looking at all options.

Thank you for any help. See you in York this weekend?

Well, your basic problem is that the Lionel diesels are to big for O-27, and aren't really intended to run such tight curves. I mean, they'll get around them, but they don't look so good. Also, they are a larger scale than the Marx engines. The diesels are 1/4" to the foot scale, or true O scale (with some compromises), while the Marx engines are 3/16" to the foot scale, or S scale (with more than a few compromises).

Lionel makes 3/16" scale engines and cars to run on O-27 track, but if you want those big diesels to run on your layout, then IMO you need a wider train table and/or you could use wider radius curves.

Go to

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for more information. And don't get distracted -- there's a lot of cool stuff available. ;-)

HTH