Elevation from Lower to Upper Deck

[Tom Bryant_MR]

Need some help with track elevation. Let me preface the picture below.

This portion is where my lower level staging comes up underneath a yard on the top level. The track with the box car is upper level. The dashed light green track to the left of the 3.8" arrow and the red track is the lower level coming up. The light green track to the left of the 3.8" clearance mark is moving down to the lower level. The blue track is all upper level.

My question is about the 2.7" clearance below the upper deck that I have right at the exit point. I will of course have to begin my cut just to the right of this point on the upper deck as the cars are just coming into view here.

I've measured a standard HO 40' box and one engine and they are just at 2.0" high.

Is this enough or am I asking for trouble ?

http://home.austin.rr.com/tomsandy/TrackElevation.jpg

Thanks

[Pruitt]

I think you may be asking for trouble here. Is there any way you can eke out another .3 inches, so your minimum is 3 inches? That's generally accepted as an absolute minimum for HO, railhead to railhead. By the time you add roadbed, tie and subroadbed thicknesses into the calculation, your upper-subroadbed to lower-railhead clearance may be getting awfully close to your 2" measurement......

[NZRMac]

is it possible to start the down grade closer to the mainline, or shift the turnout on the top level. I had a two inch gap in one spot and always regretted it.

Ken.

[cwclark]

I would get it to 3 1/2 " and if possible 4"....I did mine at 3 1/2" and then went out and bought a bunch of container cars and when i put them on the layout the first time around they hit the top of the bridge that was at 3 1/2"...had to redo a lot of the layout because of that...chuck

[Tom Bryant_MR]

Thanks for the advice. I've taken it and moved the track coming from the lower level out closer to the edge of the layout where it will not be coming up from underneath the yard.

Now there is ample clearance. You may not be able to see this well, but there is 4.9" at the left purple elevation mark and 4.3" at the right purple elevation mark. By moving the exiting point further out to the right closer to the mainline I've been able to keep the rise to 2.4%. The yellow elevation marks are at 0" - top of the deck.

http://home.austin.rr.com/tomsandy/NewTrackElevation.jpg

Thanks again !