Rokuhan L55 turnout review

I received a pair of these turnouts from Rokuhan on Friday and spent
the weekend playing with them with some interesting results.

The Turnout is R127mm 26 degree arc and using the R127mm 26 degree
curved track your parallel tracks is spaced 25mm apart, just like the
L110m R429mm 13 degree turnout. To fit into a layout you might need
a couple of L55mm pieces of straight to maintain a balanced geometry
on you layout.

How did I test them
I set up on 9ft of straight track and used the two L55 turnouts to
create a siding one one side of nine feet of straight track. and on
the other side I created another siding using the L110mm turnouts for
comparison. So this gave me room to operate an SD40-2 with 6 cars
through the passing siding and back to the main.
What works,
Micro Trains F7, GP7 GP35 SD40-2,
Marklin 2-8-2, 2-6-0, 4-6-2, 4-6-0, 0-8-0, 0-8-8-0, short 4 axle diesel, GG1
AZL RDC, early GP38-2 (Rogue)
Tenshodo D51
Crown (PRMLoco) EF65,
Pro-z (Tokyo Mauri) EF62, E231,
Rokuhan 113
RealZJ aka Plus Up & Akia 485,
GHQ K28, Westmodel or Aspen model k27,
Eisen Platz/Ftoys Sinkansen
every piece of freight I have with talgo trucks (truck with coupler attached)
every passenger car I have with talgo trucks

What did not work
Tenshodo C62 4-6-4
The C62 pilot truck derails at the point where it enters the frog with
the outside guard rail at the frog, and I am experimenting to see if I
can adjust back to back on lead axle of pilot truck to get it to work
or if changing the guard rail will make it happen.
Early Micro Trains 50ft cars with body mounted couplers.
any cars in my fleet that are over 50ft in length and I have converted
to body mounted couplers. However many of these 50ft cars with body
mounts cars were okay if you just went through curve to a piece of
straight track instead of going through an s bend to run parallel to
the main.

What does not look good is a judgement call and I leave that for each
individual to assess. For me they look okay in industrial areas and
small industrial yards using 40ft or shorter freight cars. They did
not look good with passenger cars even though they ran well.
what was marginal
double headed SD40-2 with pilot mounted coupler, double headed GP35
with pilot mounted coupler ( Double headed GP7 with coupler mounted
on truck was fine.
I did not like the look of long passenger cars or long freight cars
working through this turnout even if they got through it without
problems in Z scale however in Nn3 scale it was much more acceptable
primarily because the narrow gauge car length of passenger and freight
cars is relatively short compared to standard gauge cars in Z scale.

What was not tested
AZL SD75
AZL GP35
AZL Cab Forward, challenger, GS3 or any other brass locomotives.
Marklin many electrics and diesels

In summary I would say any car or engine with couplers mounted on the
trucks will work fine any car or engine with pilot or body mounted
couplers is a question mark initially, until tested. Conversion of
turnout from power routing as it is supplied as standard to non power
routing, like Marklin and Micro trains was simple and quick, I just
installed two screws in the bottom plate and voilà non power routing,
and the screws were included with the turnout, as are the instructions
plus there is a video on the Rokuhan channel on You Tube. The turnout
comes with one 55mm straight specially trimmed so you can fit a piece
of track on diverging exit from turnout. The R127mm 13 degree curve
comes in a package of 2 and that is an additional purchase.

regards Garth