Depending on what you’re planning on doing with scenery etc., might you consider getting some Woodland Scenic incline sets for say a 2% or 3% grade and use that instead?? The advantage to that is the track is completely supported instead of just at the piers, so it won’t bend at the joints as it appears to be doing.
Hello everyone,
Thanks so much for everyone’s feedback and assistance. I have uploaded some better images on my blog with the solution based on what people suggested. Please have a look there and feel free to comment there as well.
Thanks
This may not be the best suggestion, but some of you other guys critique it also.
Suppose VickyB used W/S foam risers under the track instead of those piers?
This way the track would have support all the way around the curve.
Or suggestion number two.Buy some 1 inch foam sheet and with some careful measuiring, and some time and work, make some “foam piers” ,more than what came with the track, and possibly doubled or tripled the number of “piers” but make them out of foam.Each one would have to be individually measured out, cut and installed.They could be painted to match the track pieces.
Then glue them in place.
It would be a lot of work, but I think it would work.
Just a suggestion.
TheK4Kid
I was kind of thinking this too. Those piers remind me of my old slot car track supports which always sagged really bad. Didn’t matter with slot cars so much, but a major problem with long passenger trains. I’ve got wood supports every 12" under 1/2" plywood sub roadbed on my grades and I’m seeing some sagging with that!!
Clearly, as you know just by looking, that is a great improvement. Your passenger cars will thank you.
Good job. What did you do?
As suggested I would go with the woodland scenics inclines and risers. I’ll bet you are at 4% grade due to the short oval to reach the summit. That is a steep incline.
The area you are having the problem with can easily be made into a 3% grade by extending the point where the incline starts. Starting the incline farther out will give a more gradual grade eleminating the kink you have that is derailing your passenger cars.
Woodland Scenics inclines come in 2%, 3%, and 4% grades.
Bill
I am not familiar with the “Toy Train type” piers that you mentioned, but I doubt that they have a transition grade at the beginning and at the top of the grade.
Assuming a 3 percent grade. That is too abrupt to expect anything but trouble at the bottom and at the top because there is no vertical easement. You could probably solve the problem by inserting a 1.5 percent 12 inch section before and after the piers to alleviate the problem.
Unless you have 24 inches before the incline starts this would entail raising the bridge to match the new height and location, but there is really no other option.
I woke up at 7:30 this morning and was working on my layout pretty much all day doing things like fixing the grades a little, wiring, built a shelf to hold the power brick, attached an arm to hold my laptop in place… basically, I thoroughly enjoyed doing all the things.
Slowly but surely i work through the track issues. as I run more and more locomotives, I realize how different they are. Requires a lot of fine tuning. Its painstaking but worth it. Its slow because I have to make sure that one fix for a locomotive does not break something else for another.
I have learnt a LOT from these forums and would not have been able to do it with the help of everyone here and especially Zandoz.
Have a look at my blog for the latest pictures and progress.
Vicki, Did you nail your track down? If so; maybe you nailed them down too tightly. This would cause the track to warp a little causing the joint to flex up. be carefull. Jim
So yesterday I ripped out the piers from one track and started putting them in as per Zandoz’s suggestion for the incline and it seems to solve the problem without any shimming required. I have only two sets so I did the other track too. Just have to wait for the third set to come in. Thanks Zandoz. Much appreciated!
Im late to the thread. I viewed the entire page of pictures.
On my experiments with Kato track in HO scale, I used a 3% woodland scenics riser grade. At the bottom of the hill (as well as the top) I have a series of 2 inch or so Kato sections. I think 8 sections in total at each grade transition.
I ran my passenger cars and found that they bottom out with sufficient clearance between bottom and rail and dont pinch when reaching the level ground at the bottom. However I did find that each of the two inch joints the rail was slightly “Off” vertcally.
Each transition from level to either up or down grade took about 16 inches of track to accomodate the large passenger cars.
I probably might stick with flextrack and cork at the grade changes and shimming to match the Kato as necessary. But not there yet.
Regarding the Kato Bridges… I would either toss the bridges and run woodland scenic risers or… drop/build up the piers at thier bases or… try something else.
I did recognized the Power Distribution Block used in one of the photos. Im looking to use a few myself. They are good strong PDBs.
You are at the stage on your layout that you need to have all of your equiptment running flawlessly on all track in both forward and reverse with everything in order (And labled) before proceeding with scenery.
Good Luck!
I havent really nailed or glued the track down yet. Since its KATO track I have no idea what I should do… nail it down?
I think he was just saying if you had nailed it down, maybe a nail had gotten driven in too tightly and thrown things off a little. I’m not sure if Kato track has holes for nailing it down??
If you use WS risers and inclines, once you get things the way you want it you can glue the track to the inclines. Later you can glue the inclines and risers down to the layout surface, but if you do scenery that will hold it in place too.