I am about to start planning a new H.O. layout, having ripped up the last one due to a home move. The last layout was 28x12 and was ideal for my needs.
However, the space that I now have is much smaller 12x 13. What I would like to do is a small version of Vic Smith’s City Edge with a dual level layout with an elevated double main line and a street running line below.
The question is, what would the maximum grade be that would enable a 4 axle loco like a GP38 + 5 or 6 cars to climb from the lower level to the upper without slipping. As all of my kit is still packed away I have nothing available to do a gradient test with at this time.
Any thoughts would be gratefully received and many thanks in advance.
And those questions essentially mean that we can’t provide you with a definitive answer unless you can provide us, and you, with some hard facts on which to perform a best-guess. If you don’t mind a guess, chances are very good you’ll be able to climb a full 3% grade with the trailing cars you mention, and if it’s a strong and heavy puller (you should have some sense of this from watching it in previous years), as much as 4+%.
Could you possibly rethink your approach and settle on a 3.5% ramp (assuming you don’t have plans to MU two or more engines for this purpose) to a higher level, but still very much part of the basic scenery of your base layout surface? Must you have two full levels? Could you devise a “no-lix” and thankfully reduce your grade to even 1.8% or so?
I could not find the trackplan, only the video. I didn’t really want to watch it but I am glad I did. Spectacular city scenery.
It does look like the elevated track starts at a lower level as it enters the picture from the right. I couldn’t say for sure if the upper and lower tracks meet at any place.
People consider 3.5% as being about as steep as you want to go both optically and functionally and 2.5% is better. Remember you will need a transition at both the top and bottom of the grade. Incorporating a grade with a curve make things worse as far as traction effort.
Thanks for all your replys. Yes, with many years of experience in railway modelling I should have realised that the first question to arise would be make of locos involved. So most of my locos are Atlas chassis with Athearn blue box bodies and on the flat they have hauled around 15 cars. The cars are a mixed bunch of Exact rail, Athearn Genesis and Atlas and all free running. I also have a large number of SD locos but I’m not sure if they would be allowed on street running in real life due to axle weight.
However, most of those are either Kato, Genesis,Proto or Bowser with plenty of pulling power. All of my locos are DCC and sound as do some of the cars.
I would imagine that the vertical rise would be around 5’’ at the most.