So I am looking of Druthers and Others as I call it. Since I am doing Appalachian Coal, part of the appeal is moving through the mountains. I have seen people that do a horizontal layout and use terrain to represent moving up and down, but I am not sure I like it. I took my temporary 4x12 layout, and threw a 3.5" board under one end (just over a 2.5 grade (the board isnt exactly at the end). So I have played with running trains on a grade by taking a flat layout and propping it up. So far, I have noticed no major difference, except one of my crossings catches more than I noticed on the flat. This is obviously a large part of my layout, and it is the SCENIC part, which I am really drawn to doing. If I put in a Sixty Linear Foot Grade at say 2 to 2.5%. If it is more or less continuous and has 3 curves in it. What are some designs issues I need to know? Can I put in a passing siding that keeps with the grade? (from the above tests I haven't seen any issues. Thought I read something that said that switches on grade is bad) The grade will double back once, perhaps twice, just depends on how I do the layout. Are there any other considerations that I have overlooked or not read about? Or words of advice from those that have done something like this? General FYI: I plan on running 5' trains. I like the look of a 5' (rolling stock being 5'). I am sure one day, 6' will be wanted. My plans call for yards to handle 6' and staging for 8'. N Scale. Modeling using early diesel power through early 70's.
I'm working on a similar 2~2.5% design idea in N-Scale. You'll likely not see any issues with short 5' trains though. Longer trains, however, might have issues with coupler bunching for trains running downhill, but you'll need to test things out. FWIW, you can eliminate nearly all of the problems for uphill, downhill, backing, etc. by body mounting your couplers.
I have been running a sixty (60) car train with two Kato Dash 9's on 2 percent grades with 15 inch radius loop back curves that also includes crossovers and have had no problems whatsoever. I'm using Kato Unitrack and # 6 turnouts. The crossovers are placed on a leading / trailing curve in order to avoid an "S" curve. See the attched track plan and layout photo. Jerry
Switches on a grade are not bad, as far as I know, but what you want to watch is changing the grade either immediately before or after a switch. Vertical displacement can cause coupler pins to hit ties, points, rails, etc. Also, grade changes, in general should be as gradual as possible or couplers can separate. If your grades are continuous, you will want to make sure that your industry sidings and possibly passing track areas are semi level or else you may have problems keeping cars in one place. John H. Reinhardt
My old layout was nothign but a 2% grade. It curved the whole way, nearly, with 2 passing sidings, both on the ruling grade as well. A few keys to reliable running on grades: 1. Body mounted couplers on cars longer than about 60' is quite helpful. 2. Use easements, and solder the track on curves to prevent kinks while laying track. 3. Ensure your roadbed is dead flat. Use a long sanding block 10" or longer, and level out your roadbed. I used cork. It's time consuming, painfully slow, and worth every moment spent. 4. Lay your track as kink-free and as widely as possible. Min radius on that old layout was 18". I had a short section of 15.5" rad in the spiral helix. Wide curves cause less issues than tighter ones, especially on steep grades. I used Atlas c80 flex, and Peco c80 insulfrog #6 and #8 turnouts. Never finished it, and dismantled it before I moved to Europe. Now, I have a HCD layout.
A stringline accident occurs when one car is tipped off the tracks and its coupler remains tangled in the coupler of the next car and tips that car off the tracks, and that car's coupler remains tangled in the coupler of the next car and tips that car off the tracks, and that car's coupler remains tangled....ad nauseum. (Yes, you really do get sick watching an entire string of cars tip off the track, especially if, in addition to falling off the track, they are falling off the edge of the layout.) If you stringline a bunch of cars, they'll all end on their sides. Usually, its on the inside of the curve... perhaps if a car derails at the end of a train creating enough drag that the locos pull all the cars off the track to the inside of the curve. I once caused a stringline accident to the outside of a slight curve on my layout when I had reached over 10 2-bay covered hoppers and my retracting elbow tipped one--and subsequently, all--into the ditch on the outside of the curve. Grey One is suggesting you design your track plan and benchwork so that there is something between the track and the edge of the benchwork to prevent any stringlined cars from taking a fatal plunge to the floor. The barrier could be trees, telephone poles, a slight rise from the track to the edge of the benchwork, hills, buildings, a couple inches of flat space. Without protection from The Big Plunge, the inconvenience of a stringline accident can become a costly tragedy.
In a related topic, here's a trick for making 2% grades. Get a 1-foot long level, securely glue a 1/4" piece of wood, metal or plastic right at one end. Use by putting on your track or roadbed. If the bubble shows level, you have a 2% grade. Dave.
Dave's on the right track, but that will make a slightly more than 2% grade. Remember, a grade is X inches rise in 100 inches run. Doing this will have a 2" rise in 96 inches. Still not severe, but more than 2%. Adding a curve adds to the rolling resistance, effectively steepening the grade. The tighter the curve, the more resistance, the steeper the grade effectively becomes. So, how to do this a bit better? I used a 2' lavel, and glued on a 7/16" block on one end. At the end of 100", the rise would be 1.75". I had nothing but 18"+ rad curves on my layout, and adding the curves to them made the grade about 2%.
