I need to change the elevation for one track going into a coal tower. The table top can not be cut to create this small 1/2" rise in elevation. What is the best solution for accomplish this rise?
Thanks
Is it a straight run? How much grade can you tolerate or want? I presume if it for a track feeding the coal tower, steeper might be more prototypical.
Realize 1/2" over a run of 25" is 2% but you will need transitions and a flat area at the tower.
If it was a straight run I would use 2" foam in HO. The thickness would be the width of the road bed. If the approach is curved, I would use some sort of risers, made out of wood or foam and ballast to fill in the gaps between risers.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
For the coaling tower at Lowbanks, I used two layers of unsplit cork roadbed, fastening them to the plywood and to one another using yellow carpenter's glue. After letting the glue fully dry (a day or two), I used coarse sandpaper (#36) to form the grade and to shape the shoulders of the cork.A Stanley Surform would also work for the forming procedure...
On the upper level of the layout, the coal dump for the Tichy coaling tower is considerably higher, so I used 1" extruded styrofoam to make the ramp, cementing it to the plywood using LePages PL 300, meant for foam. I then created the grade and side contours using a Surform, then painted it with some dirt-coloured housepaint which I use for scenery...
As you can see, there's lots left to be done, and there'll be a cinder loader located at the end of the elevated portion, as seen in the last photo.
Wayne
Hello All,
You can find wooden shims at hardware and big-box home improvement stores.
These are 1/4-inch x 1-1/4-inch x 7-3/4-inch.
Because these are 1/4-inch high all you need to do to make the 1/2-inch transition is use a rectangular piece of 1/4-inch material cut to the same dimensions and put it under one. Think a stairstep configuration with the wedges making the grade.
Another option would be to take two of the shims and place the slopes reverse to each other, in essence making a solid rectangle. Then, using the stairstep method as I described above make the gradient.
The advantage of using wood is it's easily sanded to facilitate the transitions.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
In addition to the suggestions above, it's also easy to build something like this from sheet styrene. You can fabricate a box with a ramp on one end, much like building a concrete loading dock.
Rob Spangler
I also use framing shims.
Easiest way might be to use Woodland Scenics 2% grade incline / decline starters. You get a box of them, each is 2' long and raises the track 1/2". Then you can use their 1/2" risers under the track you want elevated, and use another incline / decline starter to go back down to the original track level.
https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/SubTerrainSystem