If I plan to use 20" and 19" radius track should I use flex track, or 5" sectionals, or is it up to personal perference? I would like to go for a realistic track look, but I also like the idea of pre-curved track. I would like to ballast the track, but I know you’ll still be able to see the joints every 5".
If I am using 20" and 19" radius track, what L and R switches would I be able to use? I know they come in various forms… is there a way to tell which best fits with a particular radius?
Should there be more than one power rail joiner on the same rail or would it not matter?
How do I determine a % grade? What might be too steep for a Bachmann 4-8-2 heavy mountain?
Every rail joint is a place a train could derail. Reducing the number of rail joints is actually a good thing
On modern railroads, they weld the track ends together when laying it when pratical.
With that in mind rail gaps at the end of every track would be more prototypical than every 5" sectional.
You can use any size turnout you want. It all depends on your rolling stock and engine size. 99% of trains and cars will take #6 turnouts.
Grade percentage is a ratio of rise over run. For example if your train raises 1" for every 4" horizontal then it’s 1/4 or .25 = 25% grade.
Real life railroads tried to stay below ~1.6% on the mainline whenever possible to avoid helper service. (Adding another engine to get it over the hill)
We try to stay below 2% while modeling. (2" rise every 100") 2% will cut the number of cars you can haul over a hill in half. (ie: you can pull 20 cars level, and 10 cars on a hill)
I suspect you are talking about N scale here. Flex track is really the way to go - the Atlas ‘Super-Flex’ is very easy to work with. The big advantage if flex is the reduction in track joints. Buy some flex and experiment with using it - You will find that it is not all Thai hard to work with. Also, buy a good Xuron rail cutter, an Atlas Snap-Saw, and a medium file so you can cut/dress the ends of the rail.
Turnouts - the prototype does not match the curve. Depending on what brand you are using(Peco/Atlas), there are several sizes of turnouts. I would stay away from the sharp ones, and use the medium or long turnouts.
Power rail joiner - This is a lousy way to power your track, but a lot of folks do it because they cannot solder. You really need a power feeder about every 3 ft or so. You cannot trust rail joiners to reliably transfer power.
Grade % - A grade is measured in how high it rises over 100 units. So, a 1" rise in 100" is a 1% grade. A 1" rise in 36" is a 2.77% grade. You will have to ‘test’ your engine to see if it can pull a train up your grade. Be aware that a curve on the grade will make the pulling even harder!
First, let me preface my statements by reminding you that there is rarely a right and a wrong. Usually, it’s a matter of personal preference, and sometimes ability.
Now, let me address your issues in those terms.
First of all, if you ballast your track and weather your ties and rails, this will call the eye’s attention away from the joiners. If you install them right and solder them well, they’re really not that obvious. It’s possible to avoid them completely by attaching an electrical feed wire to each piece of track, but do you really want to get into that?
For good electrical connectivity, you’re going to end up soldering something, no matter what you do. Either you must solder your rail joiners, or you need to solder feeder wires to your track. You might consider a compromise, using flex track on your more or less straight sections, and sectional track for your curves. Whatever you do, make sure you have some way to ensure that the curves really are in the radius you think they are. I assembled templates out of sectional track, and used them to curve flex track into my curves. I ran a 4 x 8 layout for years, in both DC and DCC with nary a problem having only one set of feeders. I’m currently working on a 10 x 15 C shape which has 5 feeders evenly spaced around it. Just remember that electrical wire will carry current far better than nickel-silver track will, especially if your joints aren’t perfect. This is really a tradeoff: more feeders = greater reliability but more work.
The number of a turnout is, to simplify it a bit, a measure of how much the tracks diverge over a given distance. Higher numbers mean less divergence. In N scale, a #6 is pretty forgiving, and will, as the previous poster said, handle just about anything you want to run.
Grades are really the ultimate tradeoff. Don’t go higher than 2% on a mainline if you want to look prototypical; and remember th
I do N scale in Atlas code 55 flex track. I have 2 Spectrum 4-8-2’s as part of my roster.
As always, you should do what seems right and pleasing to you…
I wouldn’t hesitate to use flex track. I solder/file every joint any way, so flex is actually less work in the long run, IMO. The more joints, the greater the chance of grounding a train. I have a compass made out of 22" of yardstick with a hole every inch (well, every inch beyond 10" anyways), and once you lay a line and set down roadbed it’s really easy to lay down the flex. The only real trick is keeping gauge between sections since 4 ties are temporarily gone, and you’ll need a rail nipper as well. I solder a temporary brass bar(used rail) across the rails to maintain gauge while I join the sections, then I just slip the ties back under the rails when done while the latex is still tacky. I suspect flex is a little cheaper overall also.
Another nice thing about flex is that it makes the easements much easier (?!) to implement, and on curves greater than 15" or so I feel more confident about banking flext-track as opposed to sectional - 2% banking is what I use.
As far as turnout size, I’ve found that I can actually run the 4-8-2’s through the yard which is Atlas #5’s. The yard is not really the place for a Mountain, but they handle the #5’s well. I use 7’s by and large on the rest of the layout. The 4-8-2’s are my largest locos. Atlas does make curved switches, I believe it’s a 20" outside, 15" inside - at least in code 55, don’t know about code humongous though.
As stated, grade is inch rise per 100" of linear travel. Generally, a loco will pull about half as many cars up a 2% grade as it will on the flat, less if the grade is curved.
You have been well answered. This last question appears often and is a source of anxiety in many people. Generally, railroads would love to have level track, or all down hill slightly. But the latter means returning up hill. So, level it is…except, it ain’t. So, if you know you want one on your layout, how do you make it, and how steep?
First thing to accept is that grades don’t change with scale. A grade is a grade is a grade. It is an expression of a percentage of the distance run horizontally to get so many units in height at the same time. In any scale, including the real world, if you run towards the mountain summit one yard, and climb one inch, you have a ratio of 1/36 with the units being inches. If you remember basic arithmetic, that expression means you must divide the single inch by the long 36" it took us of run in order to get there. One divided by thirty-six comes to 0.027777… which, read aloud, is “Two point eight percent rounded.” The decimal figure needs to have the decimal point moved to the right, past the tens and the hundreds (past the 0 tenths and the 2 hundredths) where it rests before the first of a long string of sevens. We forget the “0” because there are no tenths, and there are only two hundredths according to the calculation.
One thing to keep in mind…well, two…first, that grade is actually quite substantial. A locomotive just able to lift the train behind it on level track would need about five times its horsepower to get it up that grade. Secondly, on your layout, you must remember that you won’t really be able to fit such a steep grade between your start and end points if you have made a diagram. The reason is that as the grade steepens from level, it needs a ver
The one thing that concerns me is that you are using 19" and 20" radius curves. If you plan on double tracking your curves, will there be enough space between the tracks to prevents trains from side-swiping each other? You might need something like an 18.5" for the inner curve with a 20" outer, or 20.5" curve if you use a 19" inner. Those are non standard curves, and you may be forced to use flex track.
TerryJ mentioned easements. Easement can allow you to get away with sharper curves. A simple way to make easements (using flextrack) is to offset the straight (tangent) tracks by 1/8" outside the curve radius, and then laying the track from the tangent into the curve, allowing a natural easement to form.