I have been an armchair railroader for years now, and have finally decided to build a layout. My son who is only two and a half is as train carzy as I am so I have decided to take the plung.
I currently have some small steam engines, and a shay “BACH”, and a Heisler “RIV”. I love logging, and think I can fit a nice layout in a some what small space in my garage.
My question is is 15" ok? I would like to be able to have a loop in my layout so my son and daughter can watch the trains go around. I know the shay can squeeze throug it, and the HO Thomas engines I have have no issue. Any one have a take on the radius used on real logging lines in the pacific north west? I know they had grades up to 12% but I will keep mine at 4% so I can operate reliably. I plan to incorporate scenes from Ian’s Lilliput and Logger layout into a shelf style 11’ x 3’ shelf layout. I would like to have loops at both ends to I can lay back and just watch the trains go around… [:)]
Any ideas or thoughts would be helpful.
I have 8% grades and some 15" curves. My shay and Climax work the grades just fine, but struggle with the curves. The climax drive shaft jumps out going forward. I assume with enough care and adjustment I can make it work. At one time I had a 0-4-0 and a small diesel switcher that also worked. Another issue is the cars. My log buggies work as do my ore cars but after that couplers are an issue. Kaydees are all that work and then it takes a lot of adjustement on longer than 40 footers. The bottom line is I love this logging area and have had others. With care they are fine and give wonderful opportunity for scenery. This time I have included a switch back up a mountain that I think is cool. Good luck and have fun.
I suggest you build a spiral of gradually decreasing radius on a sheet of plywood and run your locos inward until they start having problems. Back off from that radius a little and everything should be fine.
If one loco, for example, is unhappy at 15 inches, but the others make it to 12 inches, build your main stem to 16 inch radius standard and restrict the stiff loco from branches with tighter radii. Prototype operations did this all the time.
Incidentally, I did the same thing to determine which long freight cars to embargo from my severely-curved coal hauler. Different product, same principle.
What a super idea!! As a caveat, though, it would seem to me that a person could wear out their loco’s thin flanges fairly quickly by making the trucks take curves that are as tight as possible. It might be better to add somehwat more than only one inch of radius to minimize this problem. Perhaps I am dead wrong, and someone more knowledgeable can add a comment…?
Maybe so on the prototype, never heard of it on a model. A friend of mine worked in a hobby shop for years, and they had some Athearn GP38’s that hauled around nearly 50 cars, 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. Flanges never wore out, though the wheel treads did. After many years of running, they started having derailments, which was finally determined to be the wheel treads had worn down to the point where each wheel had 2 flanges, one on each side. The problem came when the wheel hit a turnout and tried to go both ways at once. I guess it goes to show that even locomotives can have “bald tires/wheels”. A little math shows that at 45 scale MPH (about what they ran), over 9 years that equals just over a million scale miles (11,600+ real miles).
As far as radius, use some flex track, lay out the 15" radius and give it a shot. Any car shorter than 40’ should make it. Some of the 40 footers may or may not. Log buggies, ore cars, and 34’ hoppers should be fine.
Brad
Yup my thoughts exactly. I wasn’t planning on running much over 36 foot for cars. Some old style reefers, and ore cars, logging crummies. Maybe a few 40 foot box cars, but that was it. I am trying to go for a small logging line in the north west. It will be freelance with lots of big trees, and wood tressles. I could probably go to 18" curves, but it would stick out a bit from the wall. I guess I will have to make the space… I just need to come up with a layout plan that I like now…
Thanks for the ‘reorientation’. Brad. [:)] Good to know.
dsilver668, you will probably thank yourself for the 18" curve decision, even if it means some adjustment up front. The reason is that the vast majority of us wind up wanting/needing (can never get those two sorted out [:-,] ) more and often larger rolling stock and locos, and your 15" curves would preclude that, almost certainly.