Hi all,
I am new to the forum, and just come back to N gauge modelling after a number of years away. I am UK-based, but have a keen interest in the modern day US railroads. Appreciate that the modern day scene may not appeal to everyone, but does to me! I am fortunate in having an area which is around 21 foot x 11 foot for a layout that can portray long freights running at realistic, not slow, but steady speeds. The area is currently being cleared of rubbish etc, but I am hopeful of getting some track (especially in the hidden sidings) down by Christmas.
The idea is to portray a three different kinda of scenes across what should be around 100foot of scenic running space. Each scene will be separated by a scenic break in some way. The fi
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I’m not an N-scaler so maybe I should stop right there, but I won’t. A curve increases the effective grade by R/32 where R is radius.
At least it won’t look weird. I did an google search for n scale and there are people who claim to have 6.5% grades. They need multiple engines to do that. That is certainly compatible with modern railroading where you can see webcams with 6-12 engines on some trains. (Some of that is probably just moving engines from here to there)
The other factor is train length. N scale guys like long trains. If you want something safe 2-2.5% works, if you want to push the limit, use your motive power and your train length and lay some track out on a 2x4 (are they called 2x4’s in the UK?) and set up a simple test track with increasing grades.
I am an n scaler but all my n scale experience has been with flat layouts, so I can only really guess…
I have one fact to work around: my grandpa recently informed me that he, in HO scale, can get 12 car trains up his 4 percent grade with 2 powerful locomotives (Bowser C363s).
Now N scale is about 1/4th the volume of HO scale, and since cars in both scales use similar materials, N scale cars should have about 1/4th the weight, except in scale terms they will have thicker walls, so they will likely be a bit heavier than that.
Still N scale locomotives are less powerful, but I don’t know how much…
I do know that my Arnold U28C can easily haul 20 cars on flat, so I think that, an HO scale car can haul similar amount of cars to N scale stuff.
So I’ll estimate that 12 cars needs about 2 locomotives at 4% grade, and you’ll likely want longer trains than that, so I’d estimate 2% may be a good option.
You will likely want to test this out before you settle on you grade and start planning your layout grades!
I have an N Scale layout with BNSF and UP both running side-by-side.
When I laid track, I put in a grade of 1½ %. My Kato single locomotives had no trouble with that, pulling 15 container cars.
I wanted a steeper grade, but the locomotive wheels would spin with that number of cars.
Then, I bought several more Kato locomotives. I now consist two BNSF locos on a container train with 15 cars, and two UP locos on a passenger train with 12 cars. They will pull a lot of cars with no issues at all. With that, I believe I could have put in a 3% grade and had no issues at all. (There are curves involved, also.)