I need a portal for double track on a curve. The track centres and curve mean that the Woodland Scenics portal is not quite wide enough. I am thinking of making one as per the Soeberg article in the August MR.
A semi circular profile is probably not appropriate given the extra width and therefore height of the opening. I know that some portals have an elliptical profile but I have not been able to locate photographs of suitable prototypes for reference.
Does anyone have any suitable photographs or ideas of where I might further look?
The WS portals need to be about 3/8 to 1/2" wider pending the track centers and your radius. You could cut and reassemble two portals to widen. I have done this w/ the WS cut stone version.
I used W/S double-wide concrete portals in HO for my latest layout, still under construction. My curves on the main are in the 33-36" range often, with a couple wider. I have several portals on the tighter curves, but also wider-than-recommended centerline separation to ensure no sideswiping between my larger articulated engines. What those characteristics mean is that the W/S double-wides are not quite wide enough. So, I cut them in half vertically through the center block at the apex of tha arch, and inserted a plug of either plaster from the retaining walls, wood, or styrofoam. I tried all three.
Still needing to be painted up and weathered, here is an example:
The effect I am looking for is like JaBear’s 2nd and 4th photos. Not using any wing walls so the portal needs to be wider overall than the WS one. I am using 840mm and 900mm curves on 60mm centres.
My problem was height to run double stack containers (HO). WS had the highest corners but, i still got to raise the portal about 1/4". My double stack is about 3 3/4" high on 5mm roadbed and code 83 track. The WS portal is high enough except for the corners. They are rounded. If they were 90 degrees, it would be fine.
Willy, It’s good you bring it up about the height. The WS stone cut portal that I had to modify the width, also had trouble w/ testing various large equipment since it is a club setting. Although I solve the problem for side clearance (checking 85’ passenger and high cube, when the autoracks and double stacks were run (after portal placement), I found that I needed to raise the entire portal almost 1/2".
I came on this late. but anyway … do it as the prototype does! Only single track main, but you get the idea. Cascade Tunnel had ‘grooves’ cut on both sides for double stack.
I couldn’t find a double stack to show the clearance, but you get the idea from an autoloader ( below ). Not quite as wide because of the rounded corners, but the same height.
Don’t do this in ANY tunnel, I had BN folks present when we walked in that few feet.
Notice below that the right side is cut out more than the left … from the pix above you can see that the main curved to the left about 25 feet after exiting the tunnel.
I don’t know if these grooves were the whole length of the tunnel but suspect that most was cut. The east portal was higher so no grooves there. Grooves were cut cira 1993 I think.
There was talk about doing this to the tunnel on Stampede Pass, but I don’t know what ever happened with that.
