Hi
I’m starting a new n scale layout, and want to start out with a 2% grade and increase it to a 4% grade because of space constraints. Is that getting too steep,? I dont plan on pulling any long trains, but I dont want to take a chance on building something that wont work
Thanks
ART
It is most likely not going to work the way you want. N scale locos suffer a weight problem even with every crevice inside the shell filled.
I had a 24" radius helix using about a 1.9% grade that I used as a test track for measuring this about a year ago, and I found most road switchers from Atlas or Kato could lug 12-14 freight cars cars with plastic wheels (Micro Trains, Intermountains and a few Atlases) up that grade. When I say lugging, I mean lugging. After that, the slipping began. The best pullers in my stable were Kato E8s, PAs and Lifelike FA/B 1&2s, which seemed to get over 20. Intermountain FTs did pretty well, approaching 20 cars each themselves. Unfortunately, I did not rerun the test after I switched most of my freight cars to metal wheels.
That helix was going to run from the lower staging yard to the main layout (and may again on my new layout). From my test I pretty much was going to use 8-10 cars per locomotive as a guideline on that, which was the ruling grade.
The net effect of that grade in a helix would make it something more than 1.9%, but probably not near the 4% range. I’d be hard pressed to recommend anything much over a 2% grade in N unless you want the layout focal to be getting freight over the grade.
I’m afraid that is probably not the answer you wanted, but it’s the best I can offer.
In a word: Yes.
A 4% grade will be a challenge for most N scale engines. I have 2 to 2.5% grade on my N Scale and this limits me to about 12 - 15 cars with a good engine. Lashing up two engines allows for maybe 15-18 cars.
If you are modelling a mountain logging scene with a good logging engine maybe, but I don’t have one of those geared loco’s to test their ability at 4%.
Here is my grade building story:
http://www1.webng.com/fortkentdad/Making%20the%20Grade.htm
One of my n-scale grades is 4.7% part of it is on 2 corners, my diesel pulls up about 15 cars but it does slip a bit just before the plateau.
Hi
Thanks for the reply. I recalculated the grade and am going to be climbing about a 2.75 grade and that will give me the clearance to ineed to pass another train under the incline ( I’m going to use a bridge instead of a tunnel) so that will help. I checked out your link to your layout and tried the foam shaping tool,works great ! If I can ask you one more question, what type of adhesive are you using to bond your cork roadbed to the foam after its shaped ?
Thanks again
Art
I’ve tried a few different adhesives to bond cork to the foam, but I recommend No More Nails, it’s bond is strong enough, quick enough to hold the cork in place, even though the cork really wants to bend back to straight. You can pin the cork down temporarily with anything you like, a long hat pin works great because it is thin enough to disappear when you pull it out, long enough to hold well and has a nip on the end to make it easy to handle, but anything will work. Thin nails are ok, thicker nails leave wholes but this is not a big problem. Because you may need to sand the road bed to get it nice a level later I take out the pins, nails, etc.
BTW, I use a hand sander with its own bag. I kept the sanded off cork, it makes a great scenic material, don’t pitch it if you can capture it. You will want to sand the transition zones at the top and bottom of the grade at least.
ok, I finally get off my backside and calculated my grade and I was shocked to find out that my grade is a whopping 5%!!! No wonder nothing will go up there with a single loco and only a minimum of double Atlas lashup will pull a moderate train with the exception of Kato engines which with double lashup could pull about 10 passengers cars but I think that’s about the limit without labouring the loco’s.
All I can say is that’s probably the limit of any layout because I was just using standard Bachmann pier set incorporating into sculpted terrains and that the grade you get. It was my real layout so I only about less than 20% of the knowledge about modelrailroading that I have now and so you can say it’s a disaster. If I can do it all over again, in terms of realism and functionality, I probably would not do anything over 2%. If space is not allowed like my situation as well, then just scrap the grades altoether and model a smaller scene and not get over ambitious like I did. I was trying to incorporate everything into a small area and now I end up with uge grades, tracks overflowing out of the base and uneliable operation sometimes even with Micro-Train couplers.