On page 71, on the upper right hand corner of the page we have a photograph of aforesaid shortline running on an old C&NW branch—complete with undulations.
This got Eric and I into an interesting discussion as to how one can incorporate some undulations into a spur that goes into an industrial park in his layout. It appears in the photo that one could use some sectional track to sort of model this but how else could one do this?
The operational end would be as under restricted speed and such—I’ve done a mock up of something along this line and we seem to have no issue with derailments–yet.
Any ideas? Comments? [:-^]
I haven’t seen the photograph, but why not simply use flex track? If you first mark-out the proposed track placement, you can add undulations with ever-shorter layers of masking tape, paper or thin cardstock, then lay the track as you normally would. I think that you might also be able to add side-to-side elevation differences, too, although I’d keep them fairly minor or you may end-up having electrical contact problems with the locos.
I also recall an article in MR many years ago about a modeller who used a twin coil switch machine to simulate the way that a rail at a rail joint can be depressed each time that a wheel passes over it. I believe that there was also a sensor of some type that activated it as each wheel passed.
Wayne
undulations? a ballpeen hammer comes to mind. used with discretion of course.[}:)] BILL
Back in the early/mid 70’s, Ron Hatch(Knox Station B&B) built a diarama with ‘distressed’ trackage. He used a small chisel to add ‘low joints’ every 39’ on his handlaid trackage. It looked real ‘cool’, but I suspect our lack of ‘equalization’ on most rolling stock may have a problem with it! Watching a 40’ boxcar ‘rock & roll’ down that diarama sure looked like what we were seeing on the old C&NW ‘Alco Line’ back then…
Jim
This topic really made me smile.
Two reasons…
- Decades ago my Dad got an 0 Gauge six coupled steam switcher. I don’t have a clue why we did it all these years after but we started to “test run” it over track jacked up to different angles both end to end and sideways.
Maybe we did it because the loco was plastic ( new then in 0 ) and incredibly light weight… a current H0 Geep probably weighs more.
IIRC the only thing that stopped it going forward or back was a distinct peak between two lengths of track getting both outer axles off the rails. Side to side it stayed on at more than a 45 degree angle.
This gives a simple answer to the OP… set up some tests! [:)]
There used to be lots of theories about whether compensation was good or bad. Some said that it was essential,some said that it was a waste of time. Strangely the one thing agreed on by all was that the track had to be as near perfectly flat and perfectly aligned as possible. my own observation of layouts over decades tells me that neither is correct.
The big issue is that nothing should happen suddenly between the wheels and the rails. It sounds obvious but that also means that speed is a factor. A slow moving wheelset has more time to adjust to any change in the rail. For a whole vehicle there are less dynamic loads shifting around at low speed. This, afterall, is why the real RR put on a Slow Order when they have a track defect.
It occurs to me that the debate this side of the pond really mostly applied to four wheeled stock. It was reckoned that “bogie” (8 wheel or more) stock would sort itself out at the bearing between the truck and the underframe… provided that a little slack (but not too much) was left between them.
I’m using old wooden shelving for a layout to not have to build specific benchwork for the layout yet and save space. It’s undulations occured naturally over 30 years from the weight that was stored on it. I don’t figure you want to wait that long. 
But if you are willing to take a risk on something that I don’t know if it would work and HAVE NOT tried. You could intentionally get a section of plywood sub-roadbed wet and then dry it, intentionally warping it. You wouldn’t be able to control were the undulations were as well as using tape or similar means. It’s just an idea and I don’t know that it’s a good one.