Ok folks, this may be easily the most bizarre railroad story you have ever heard. I don’t actually plan on building this–more of a thought experiment. Not even sure it COULD be built, but I think MR would have a field day covering it if it did. I put it here because I envisioned it as a model railraod, and just to see what the community’s reaction is. The setting is entirely fantasy, though realistic (no unicorns, giants, etc.). Equipment (where real equivilants exist) is based on North American railroading in the 70s and 80s. These would be used on the layout, so that I wouldn’t have to scratchbuild everything.
Inspirations: D&RGW, CMStP&P, Tibet Railway
Premise: The railroad would be set in a landmass consisting of a subtropical coastal seaport, and a Colorado-like plateau, seperated by a Himilayas-like mountain range. While the two kingdoms initally founght, they later merged into a single state, due to economic strategy. There are only two ways through the mountains: a severeral-hundred-mile detour, or a strait shot over what is accurately called “Bandit Pass”. The latter is chosen to avoid the higher elevation, steeper grades, etc. of the alternative. The grades are still steep, trains run slow, and due to the rough terrain and hostile conditions the area is only lightly patrolled, making it ideal for train robberies. All freight trains are equipped with armed cabooses for this reason. In order to get military escorts on frieghts, the railroad is largely government owned.
Equipment: Climbing out of both major cities, a fleet of EMDs would be used. Electric helpers would tack on to carry the train up the steepest grades, but due to concerns of winter icing on the catenary, the electrics cut off and are replaced by Gas Turbine locomotives to haul the trians over the 12000-odd-foot summit of the pass. Turbines are chosen since they don’t require catenary and do better in lower-oxygen environments. The turbine locomotives may or may not hav
If anyone tries to build this, I hope you have a large area to house it. 12,000 condensed to 1000 feet, and divided by 87 gives an eleven and a half foot rise. At a 4% grade, this requies close to 100 feet of sloped track. Hope you have a large club to do this.
I am after reading some of these comments!
to those commenting on space, I don’t imagine it would literally model a 12000 foot elevation gain. It would have to be done somewhat like the MK&Q; he models much of the west and doesn’t have this problem.
You would just need backdrop divided segments featuring the seaport, alpine regions on either side of the summit where the electrics run, the summit itself, and the plateau city. Wouldn’t have to be much bigger that the G&D or UB which I realize was massive. Still steep grades, but less run. Maybe max of 2%. The distance and long climb would be alluded to with the divided segments.
(I’ve tried to post this twice but the stupid ad at the bottom of my phone has a blue link just like submit button keeps taking me off the webpage when I try to post [8o|] )
I’m a bit surprised no one mentioned the literally outlandish setting. It seems to be an unwritten rule in MR that your layout should be set somewhere on Earth, or is that just because that’s easier. I realize it’s a hobby and there are few hard rules. It seems like after awhile you just have to ignore the advice you don’t need/want regarding how to go about your pastimes.
One of the things I’ve been banging around, but never had the space (no puns intended) to do justice to, is the high-speed rail connection between Ecuadorian sea level and the high-level spaceport (and semiballistic hypersonic facility) firing east over Brazil.
All heavy equipment and likely propellant would be carried this way. It might be plausible to combine high-speed rack or Fell sections with automatic switchbacks to get the right mix of speed, capacity, and cost.
One note: the amount of electricity generation produced for some types of launch assist would make electrification a logical ‘zero-carbon’ choice…
If that’s an unwritten rule, nobody told Kevin. His Stratton and Gillette is set in a totally fictional locale. The great thing about model railroading is we can make it as realistic or as fanciful as we choose. The railroad you describe would not be my cup of tea but if it’s what you want, go for it. Your approach reminds me a little of Malcolm Furlow’s. I don’t know how many remember him. I think he once wrote, “Reality is a crutch”.
My own freelanced railroad falls somewhere between realistic and fanciful. The modeled portion of my layout represents completely fictional towns but my staging yards represent real cities and it interchanges with real railroads. Some of those have trackage rights over a portion of my layout. My goal is not to model something that existed but something that could have existed.
You want prototypes? Look up the Mexican Railway’s climb from Veracruz to Mexico City via the infamous Maltrata Incline (over 4.5 percent in places) "From Orizaba the line runs parallel with the Rio Blanco, crossing three tributaries of the river, and winds its way up through the Infiernillo (“Little Hell”) Canyon to Maltrata (ninety-five and a half miles), achieving a height of 5,560 ft by tunnels and bridges. Beyond Maltrata the line twists and turns in all directions as it makes its way upwards. Looking back from the observation platform at the rear of the train, the passenger can see as many as six sets of track in the valley below.
From Alta Luz (ninety-nine miles), where the gradient in places is as steep as 1 in 22, the view of the plains is magnificent. The train passes over Wimmer Bridge, 90 ft long and built over a chasm, and gains Boca del Monte (“Mouth of the Mountain”), 108 miles, at an altitude of 7,924 ft. This station lies on the eastern edge
This is all very interesting. I always pictured the pass bring heigher than 12k so I guess thats plausible too.
seems like my idea is only Farfetched when compared to some popular realistic operations philosophies. Tony Koester’s project for instance. Based on his articles, he seems to take a very conservative view on realism. (Lest I be misunderstood though, I have nothing against the guy at all: I met Tony in Milwaukee about ten years back, and he was very polite.)
Or just about any railroad that crossed over the rocky mountains to get to the Pacific coast.
Canadian Pacific’s “Big Hill” (a “temporary” alignment to finish the railway that operated for 25 years) was about 4.5% grade until it was replaced by the Spiral Tunnels in 1909, basically a pair of real-world single turn helices tunneled into the mountains on either side of the valley and reduced the ruling grade to the desired 2.2%.
Other significant engineering projects such as the 5-mile long Connaught Tunnel (built 1916) or the 9-mile Mount MacDonald and 1-mile Mount Shaughnessy tunnels (built 1988) and other line diversions and realignments also lowered summits and grades on other parts of the route through the Rockies compared to the originally constructed route in the 1880s. Not too mention numerous other tunnels and bridgework on the original route.
Why would you mix diesels (headend) and electrics (helpers) over the pass? Why wouldn’t both the head end and helpers be the same type of power? If the line is electric, use electric engines. I’m not sure realistically why any railroad would electrify just the helper district and then only use the electrification half the year and maintain two sets of helper equipment. (Electrics and turbines.)