I suppose that it could work, but I wouldn’t want to make the unsupported transition too long or too steep. I would at least use temporary supports until you are ready to ballast.
Rich
I think the thing to do is figure out the slope and the length of track to go from the roadbed to where it bottoms out. Tack down the end on the road bed and the bottom and then let 'er rip. A 1% slope from a 5 mm high road bed, means a 19.7" run. It might be worth a try on a simple siding to see if it works. It would mean disconnecting the bus at the circuit breaker, connecting a DC power pack to the rails using alligator clips then running a DC locomotive I have along with a couple of cars up and down a few times, if I get Superbe’s post right.
[quote user=“bearman”]
richhotrain:
bearman:
richhotrain:
bearman:
Superbe, do you mean that you lay the track and run trains without anything supporting the track in the transition?
LOL
That seems to be what he is saying, at least until the ballast is applied.
Rich
That is what I thought he was saying. I might try it on one of my sidings. There is something appealing about letting nature do all the work without having to sand a shim or a styrofoam incline, cut cardboard, fiddle with whatever to get the transition just right.
I suppose that it could work, but I wouldn’t want to make the unsupported transition too long or too steep. I would at least use temporary supports until you are ready to ballast.
Rich
I think the thing to do is figure out the slope and the length of track to go from the roadbed to where it bottoms out. Tack down the end on the road bed and the bottom and then let 'er rip. A 1% slope from a 5 mm high road bed, means a 19.7" run. It might be worth a try on a simple siding to see if it works. It would mean disconnecting the bus at the circuit breaker, connecting a DC power pack to the rails using alligator clips then running a DC locomotive I ha
Superbe, what is a short run as opposed to a long run. I get it about the incline, I am talking, like you, about going from roadbed at 5mm high (WS HO foam) to the layout top.
Hi bearman,
Going from the roadbed to the layout top is definitelty a short run.
I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned long runs but you never know what someone might try.
Bob
Running the track right off of the cork onto the base is exactly what I did. It forms a natural transition in about eight inches. I ran my trains for a year without any problems before I ballasted. When I ballasted, I stuffed some scraps of folder under the tracks and ballasted right over it. I just used ballast in other areas without the filler but it used too much.
This is what I do too. I like to place a strip of styrene under the tie where the track meets the plywood to extend the slope, since I think the eight inch transition is too steep for my taste. Unfortunately, it does use a lot of ballast, so I have now begun to place cardboard under the track in stairsteps as a means to fill the gap and to use less ballast.
Also, in the areas where there will be a lot of time in between laying the track and ballasting, I use varying dimensions of styrene strips under the ties every two inches to support a lengthy transition until I get around to ballasting over them.
That’s the problem. The method uses too much ballast, and that stuff is as expensive as heck. Anyone using this method had better find a cheaper alternative to ballast.
Rich
In situations where a lot of filler material would be needed, I use plain sand and only add the ballast on top where it can be seen. A 50 lb bag of washed play sand can be had for cheap and can save a lot of expensive ballast.
It doesn’t use THAT much ballast. I think I used eight bags of Arizona Mineral ballast for a 9x14 layout.
It’s all relative I guess. Expenses can pile up on a bigger layout. I always have things like extra sand sitting around anyway for filler.
Homabed or Calroadbed makes a transition piece that is designed exactly for this purpose. Even if you are using cork or Flexxbed (as I am) rather than Homabed for all your roadbed you can still use the milled Homosote for the grade transitions.
Keith
If you model a broken, run down short line like me, you don’t need ballast. All you need is ground foam. [:-^]
(real life examples) http://www.carrtracks.com/okri01.htm
http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Railroads/TA&W/TA&W.htm (go down about half a page)
I can see doing this almost any number of ways, but to have them nice and smooth, and also shallow (no abrupt drops of two scale feet over 20 scale feet, say), you pretty much have to either sand or plane the ramps using sand-paper or a surform file/rasp.
I could see using styrene strips under the ties, cardboard strips, even unused and filed/sanded plastic ties under individual ties. What you want is something gradual over about 30-40 scale feet, ideally, and stable. By stable I mean the ramp should not be able to sag under a locomotive’s weight, so you need something that won’t compress more than a fraction of a mm, if at all. Later, you would ballast or use fill like in so many yards covered with dirt and cinders, whatever.
Bottom line, the bulk of the responses suggest some sort of shaping, and that means sanding or planing. Elbow grease for the three minutes it would take to do it right.
I use 1/4" wide masking tape.
Here’s a photo where I ramped down through a turnout from 1/4" to 1/8" cork:
!(http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.com/images/Photos/Model Construction Photos/Progress Photos/2005/05-03-13 Starting Yard Ramp.jpg)
This is similar to how I superelevate track, described here:
http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.com/CM%20-%20Super-Elevating%20Curves.htm
It is said that seeing is believing so here is a video showing a train running on the trainsition without support undernath the track. and the track does not show any bowing or movement
http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w15/superbe/1-3-2012/?action=view¤t=20120103171222.mp4
Bob