Hi!
A while ago (a few months ago
) the question came up how long coaches look on turnouts.
I'll start with a few pictures followed by a li'l bit of theory.
For the first series of pictures I used two 24912 with one 24070 in between so simulate a pair of slim turnouts.
Here with a 316 mm and a 303 mm coach:
Here with two 24 cm Schürzenwägen:
And now two coaches in the "new longer length" of 28.2 cm (I'll have to check the door-window of the green coach):
And the "old shorter length" (27 cm):
And finally two tin-plate coaches (24 cm):
And now I used two 24224 to simulate a pair of standard R2 turnouts.
First with two 303 mm coaches:
The the Schürzenwägen again:
The new longer length (28.2 cm):
The 27 cm class:
And finally 24 cm tin-plate coaches:
And now some theory:
The clearance needed on the outside of curves (and the gap between coaches on turnouts) depends on the distance between buffers and the pivot point.
The 303 mm coaches, the Schürzenwägen, and the tin-plate coaches have the pivot point in the middle of the truck.
The 27 cm coaches and the 28.2 cm coaches have the pivot point offset towards the centre of the coach. This reduces the clearance needed on the inside of the curves (I guess this is the intention behind the asymmetrical trucks), but increases the clearance needed on the outside and the gap between coaches on curves.
Therefore on turnouts the 303 mm coaches do not look worse than the 27 or 28.2 cm coaches.
The tin-plate coaches have no close couplers and no guiding mechanism. Therefore the 24 cm Schürzenwägen with close couplers have a smaller gap between the coaches.
I did not check yet how much clearance the long coaches need on the inside of curves - and how that compares to other Märklin products.
BTW: Märklin announced 303 mm coaches in the Summer New Items Brochure 2011, but they are not available yet (#43597).
