Inclines

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have a formula ( or experience) for inclines. I want to travel 43" in vertical height and my question is how many feet of track will I need to do this comfortably? I am not worried about scale but want the locos to be able to climb and descend comfortably. Thanks...Tim

[Roger Bielen]

An old standard was 1/4" of height for each foot of track. There are a number of variables to take into consideration: type of engine - traction tires, magnitraction, nothing, power; weight of the consist being pulled; etc..

With the height that you're considering a spiral/helix could be used, especially if you don't have 160' of straight run. You could experiment by taking a length of board, maybe 12', attaching some track and test your engine at different angles until you find your max..

[Big_Boy_4005]

A picture is worth a thousand words......



This is a 10' diameter helix that I am building to allow the trains to climb 48" at about a 2% grade. Each 360 degree turn has about 32' of track, and gains 8". The blue line on the wall is 72' off the floor. The 1x4 at the bottom is 24" off the floor, I have two more turns to go to get to the top.

Lionel trains could maybe do twice this grade, but would not be able to pull very many cars.

Grade % is calculated as units rise per 100 units run. 8' is almost 100", so 2" rise in 8' is just under 2%. 4% should be the maximum practicle grade for models of any size.

[Anonymous]

Thank you guys Sooooooooooooo much..Tim