I'm looking for a publication that lists the minimum radius curve various railcars can negotiate safely. I've looked at some online sample pages of The Official Railway Equipment Register, and while it seems to have all the dimensions you would want, it doesn't list the curving ability, not at least on the pages I saw.

I've gone through my Car and Locomotive Cyclopedia and while I do see curvature data on a few cars, it isn't all inclusive and certainly doesn't include all the older cars still out there.

Is there another publication out there?

Greg

Answering my own question always seems a bit strange, but I got the following answer from one of my POCs in another of the services.

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A. From the Association of American Railroads' Manual of Standards and Recommended Practices, Section C, Part II, Volume 1:

2.1.4.2 Horizontal Curve and Tangent: "Cars shall be design to operate over
the respective horizontal curves without interference between trucks, car
body, and brake rigging. In addition, cars shall be designed to negotiate a
No. 7 crossover having 13-ft track centers when coupled to a like car or AAR
base car. . . "

2.1.4.2.1 Minimum Curve Coupled to Base Car and Like Car:
Length over pulling faces of couplers over 75 ft
Minimum radius base and like car 350 ft

2.1.4.2.2 Minimum Curve for Cars Uncoupled:
For cars having truck centers greater than 46 ft 3 in. - 180-ft radius

2.1.4.2.3 Base Car
Length over pulling faces of couplers 44 ft 7 7/8 in.

Radius = 5730/degrees (approximately), so 350' radius gives a curve between
16 and 17 degrees, 180' radius gives a curve slightly over 32 degrees.

B. Railroad responses to question of what is their maximum track degree of curve"

CSX: 10% of route miles are on lines with curves of 12 to 20 degrees.
NS: 2% of all miles of curves are 12 to 20 degrees
BNSF: 8 curves comprising 0.57 miles of track have radii of 13 degrees or more
UP: Some main tracks have curvature up to 15 degrees
KCS: A few tracks have curves up to 15 degrees

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Greg