The broader the curve, the more realistic the longer carriages and engines look. Maximize the radius and also the switch length.

Hi!
If the cars have close couplers with guiding mechanism then the train will be longer in curves than on straight track. Mixing curves and straight track will increase the stretching and contracting.

I'd do this only to get larger radii that are not available out of the box. Or for testing/temporary layouts.

Yes, and there is more to this: easements. I described them in another thread.

The late John Armstrong addresses and illustrates this topic here ("The Mighty Bantam"):

https://books.google.pt/...%20armstrong&f=false

That's the rule. There are some exceptions to the rule.
Some trackplans help to find those exceptions.
Another rule of thumb says that problems increase when trains get longer. A 10-piece TGV may behave different than a tank loco with 3 Donnerbüchsen coaches.

Trains will run smoother if you can use a larger radius without straight tracks between curves.

Thank you, everyone, for your helpful feedback.

What I am thinking of doing is to put together 5 concentric loops. The first one (R0, since it does not exist in the Marklin C track; in fact, I will Use K track and it will be a dual loop, AC-DC).

The second and third one will be Roco analogue tracks (R1 and R2 in Marklin parlance, but R2 and R3 in Roco parlance). These will be joined by one or two sets of turnouts (which you guys call "switch" or "points", I am not sure what the difference is).

Then I will use two sets of Marklin R2 curves that I already have, but will expand them with straight track in order to reach about a size R3 and R4 and I will see what happens. I'll let you know.

This exercise,however, will have to wait for a while since I first need to find the space in my basement for the extra length of track.

Have a great Sunday, everyone.

Yeah.. Tell us about it.. The language is called English and invented by the (wait for it) English.. Then the Americans come along and misspell key words like colour and Sulphur. Then they mess around with the grammar of the language. Don't get me started on what they did with the imperial measurement system - the gallon that is not a gallon.. I really feel sorry for anyone trying to learn English.. I really understand and support the French efforts to keep their language pure..

"we write 21/11/2015 but the American way is 11/21/2015" not necessarily.

NEVER trust a date given in numbers only because is is not guaranteed that the writer/company wrote the date in any particular order. For this reason when I look at a receipt, I am never sure what the date was that I made a purchase (for example).

Incidentally, in Italy the date in numbers is also written "day-month-year". I suspect it is so all over Europe.

(I suspect we are going a tad off topic, however... )

-- Weather report: Today in Toronto is a wonderful sunny day, even if a bit cold: 2 degrees Celsius.

In SA it all depends on the origin of the software being used or whether the person could be bothered to write the date correctly but the norm is also supposed to be Day/Month/Year.

Maybe we should get back to the original topic.

I have a R2 (C-track) curve with a 24094 in the middle of the curve and the few long passenger coaches like it. The second hand Liiliput ones I do have (sorry don't know there Model numbers), don't like it. Old metal 'short' Marklin passenger coaches (4051?) seem to be fine with it.

1. Day-Month-Year,

2. Gibraltarian English

3. Use the largest curve radius possible and avoid sudden changes in radius, including straight tracks in between curves.