Grades for staging yards

[Anonymous]

If I'm building a below-level staging yard that has a separate entrance and exit, does the grade down to the yard matter much? It seems to me that since the trains will always be going downhill to enter the yard, and the drop to the yard will be hidden, that I don't have to worry quite as much if the grade approaches 4% or even 5% in order to drop level fairly fast. I figure the grade back up won't be more than 2.5% or so (which is what I'm trying to keep my ruling grade at), so trains coming out of the yard won't have to struggle. But going into the yard downhill shouldn't matter, right?

---joe

[orsonroy]

It shouldn't, so long as you're sure that the operating plan you've got for your layout won't ever have trains trying to get up that 4% or 5%. But even then, you should be OK, so long as yu're modeling the diesel era. Most HO scale diesels can readily handle an averaged sized layout train, say 20 cars or so. Tack on two or three engines, and you'll have WAY more power than you'll need to pull 20 cars up a 5% grade. Even if you only want two diesels per train, add a third "helper" engine to get up the grade from staging, and cut it off as soon as it gets to the main layout.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! That's what I thought., but I wanted to be sure. At this point the plan is that the staging will be one way, but I suppose there will be occasions where I could send a train the other way. All of my current power is diesel, but I plan on modeling the mid-late '50s, so I will have some steam at some point. But the layout will also be somewhat mountainous, so most of the 'long haul' road trains will have two engines anyway. Only the locals will have one engine, and they won't be more than 8-10 cars anyway.

---joe