Woodland Scenics Incline problem.

[Anonymous]

I purchased a Scenic Ridge Layout made by Woodland Scenics and none of my Locos can haul more than 5-6 cars going up the inclide. [V]

I followed the instructions to the "T" and yet now I am somewhat disappointed that I can not have long runs on the area where the incline is. I guess I should have treid to run 10-12 cars before I finished this area of the layout.

My engines are:
Kato P42 X 2 and four passenger cars, Bachman Spectrum series 2-6-2 with tender, Atlas Conrail, Atlas B&O, Atlas Hershey loco, Atlas Burlington Northern (The largest of them all). All except the Katos' are DCC, which is the best thing siince wheels.[:D]

The Katos do not count since there is one engine in the front and another in the rear.

Any sugestions on how to correct this? Other than tearing it up of course! [:(]

I have modified the rest of the layout so that I could begin to add a yard, a commuter line and maybe an additional urban scene. Pictures to follow......
[:)]

Sherman

[CP5415]

Sherman, it depends on what incline you've used.
I'm using the 4% grade because I'm not going to have a train longer than 5 cars on this section of track. It's a branchline feeding the mainline with loads & it's downhill to the mainline.
Most of the grades on my mainline sit around 3 - 3.5%. My Athearn GP38-2 has no problems hauling 8 cars up & down the grade's here. The only locomotive I have that has any problems is my IHC 4-6-2 & that's only if I use more than 5 passenger cars.
Mind you that my hand is always on the throttle & I give extra power just before the start of the grade just in case.

Have you tried giving more power just before the grade?

Gordon

[MAbruce]

I'm not sure about the grades this layout has built in, but I suspect they are fairly steep (greater than 2 percent). Add a curve in the grade and it worsens the situation. You are dealing with the same laws of physics that a real railroad has to deal with. I have a 2% grade (with a curve), and it take twice the locos to pull the same load that a single loco can on a flat grade. It took three locos to barely haul 32 cars up this grade last night.

The general recommendation that I have heard is not to put a grade steeper than 2% on your layout. I realize this can be difficult to do on a smaller layout because there is less room to achieve the needed height.

One of the best things I did was to make sure all my cars roll freely, so they did not add any drag. It did make a difference, but it could not overcome the law of physics… [;)]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MAbruce
one of the best things I did was to make sure all my cars roll freely, so they did not add any drag.

One way to accompli***his is to make sure your trackand wheels are clean. you may also want to change out any plastic wheels you have for metal ones. metal wheels will reduce the drag considerably and your track will be cleaner, thus ensuring you'll be able to haul a little more.

Woodland Scenic Kits are great learning tools. After you've finished one, you can then go and add onto it, straighting some curves to go into other modules, smooth out the inclines, as they can be expnnaded to another module as well.

You've learned some things, i can tell that. Good luck you;re on your way!

Jay

[nfmisso]

QUOTE: Originally posted by shackscs

I purchased a Scenic Ridge Layout made by Woodland Scenics and none of my Locos can haul more than 5-6 cars going up the inclide. [V]

So what is the issue? Do what real railroads do: add more locomotives....

or make it a helper grade - more challenging operations!! [8D]

On Saturday, I saw a UP frt heading north to Shakopee, just north of Mankato; it had six GE dash 8/9 CW on the head end, which is all that I saw. Other trains that I have seen on this line typically have two or three big GE's on front and a single DPU at the tail end (also big GE).

On the layout that I am designing (have to fini***he house before building) I am keeping all the ot grades excpet one under 2%, that one will be about 4%, and will require a helper for most trains - I needed a place to for my Jawn Henry model to do what it did best.