I am a first time railroad modeler. I purchased KATO N-guage track and layed out an enlarged figure eight using KATA piers, but my incline is too steep. What degree should the incline be?
Thanks all.
Kellenberg
Kellenberg wrote:I am a first time railroad modeler. I purchased KATO N-guage track and layed out an enlarged figure eight using KATA piers, but my incline is too steep. What degree should the incline be?Thanks all.Kellenberg
Do you mean grade? Ideally the grade should be no more than %3.5 or 3.5 inches rise in 100 inches of run. Closer to %2.5 is even better. Hope that is what you are asking and that it helps.
Kellenberg wrote: I am a first time railroad modeler. I purchased KATO N-guage track and layed out an enlarged figure eight using KATA piers, but my incline is too steep. What degree should the incline be?Thanks all.Kellenberg
When setting up the grade or incline, you may have placed the piers too close together, or your layout base may not be level. Another area to look at closely that may give you headaches is the transition from flat to grade, also called the "vertical curve." If this is a sharp angle instead of a curve, you may have cars and locos bottoming out or uncoupling at this point.
Laying grades "right" takes some doing, but part of that is getting the figures right beforehand.
Some railroads operate on some serious grades, but they plan for that demand. They use extra engines in the bad hills, or they lighten the loads. Ideally, they'll find a lower grade to begin with, even if it means building an extra 5-10 miles of tracks. You can build a fair bit of tracks for the cost of a helper engine and the crew to run it.
As you have been told by the other gentelmen, you may have laid your grade with two problems...critical ones. Assuming you have the right train length and the right amount of weighted power to pull it, you may not have made a gradual vertical curve into the grade. Or, your have several undulations that cause one or more driver wheels to get lifted, thus failing to contribute to the tractive effort. The grade must be smoothly entered, smoothly exited, and it must be even all the way up in between those transitions.
One other thing to consider....a curve partway up a grade greatly adds to the work the engine must do. A radius near 20" with some longer cars or engines may amount to an effective increase in the grade by as much as a full percentage point. Now, instead of your 3.5% grade, it is more like 4.5%, and the lone engine may be just that much outclassed.
Which Kato pier set(s) did you use? If you used just the standard 23-015 piers, the grade is going to be pretty steep...especially if put at the joints of short track pieces. An easy solution is to get the Kato gradual incline 23-016 piers, move the 23-015s to every other track joint, and place the 23-016s under the open joint between. This will effectively cut the grade in half.
Reality...an interesting concept with no successful applications, that should always be accompanied by a "Do not try this at home" warning.
Hundreds of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.
"Oooh...ahhhh...that's how this all starts...but then there's running...and screaming..."