scale ratio and grade %

[Anonymous]

I am kind of new to model railroading, and am doing some research to design and build a layout. I am planning on using N scale and would like to know what the 1:160 means or what unit of measurement it uses. and also when the talk about elevation grading (1% or 2% ) how is that calculated? any help or reference material I could by would be deeply appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I'm an HO-ER, 1:87, N-scale being 1:160 is the size of things on a Model Railroad relative to the size of things on real railroad. N scale is 160th size of
prototype.

MR April 2001 edition had an article on grades in their "Back to basics section-Grades" with a diagram.

If you don't have a back copy, perhaps you can pull it up on this site that you are on, Trains.com

[Anonymous]

Thanks Charles. I could not find the artical on this site, but I sent an email to see if I could get a copy of it, and I am going to check my local hobby shops they may still have a copy of it or some other reference. As far as the scale, would it be better to break every thing down to feet or inches before dividing by 160?

[Anonymous]

Do not start in getting the two quiries scale and grade, mixed up or you will get totally confused.

The scale that you are in in 1/160th of the size of the real thing. If you are going to do some measuring (feet and inches) you need to convert those measurements to your scale (1/160th), when you are at your hobby shop get a scale ruler. It converts everything from feet and inches to the appropriate length in your scale.

Grade is the amount of incline or decline given over a given distance. Two percent is a two foot rise/fall over one hundred feet in real feet and inches. Now for N scale, sorry I'm in HO, I think it works out to 1 inches over 4 feet to give you a 2 percent grade. 01/48 X 100 = 100/48=
2.08 percent.

Hope this helps,enjoy. Ron

[Anonymous]

First let me say that if you go to your local library you should be able to get several very informative books about model railroading that will help you. The way I calculate scale is as follows and I am sure there are others ways, object feet dived by 160 ( N SCALE ) times 12, IE, a 40 foot box car 40' dived by 160 = .25 times 12 =3.0 inches thats the length of a 40' box car in N scale, 60' would be 4.5 inches, 80' would be 6inches etc.. Grades, the rise or fall of track is, a 1 inch rise in 100 inches = a 1% grade, 2 in. = a 2% grade , 3 in. = a 3% grade etc. also a 1 inch rise in 50 inches = a 2% grade, I am sure that you can figure the rest out. I would set a 2% grade max if you must have a grade, you may still need 2 or more engines to pull a decent amount of cars. I was going to build my N scale layout with a 4 % grade and after talking with a few well informed railroaders decided againts it, all my track is level and my scenery raises and drops and I can pull a consit where the front of the engine can almost touch the rear of the last car with no problems. Hope this helps some and good luck with your layout.
Beeline

[BR60103]

"would it be better to break every thing down to feet or inches before dividing by 160?"
This would depend on what you're measuring or modelling. Anything under a foot long, you should really use a scale rule. They're marked in feet. Unless it gets under an inch long and you need a micrometer or something. If you're measuring something really big (your whole railroad), you say that Toronto to Montreal is 320 miles so divide by 160 and your layout will be 2 miles long. :-) (Extreme example, and the distance is not exact)
David

[Anonymous]

I've been in N Scale for about ten years now, and before that in HO. If you want to pull any size train at all in N Scale, figure on at least eight and a half feet of run for two inch rise. This is a tad less than two percent grade. One needs about two inches to cross over another track in "N", three inches in "HO". Buy engines that have all four axles powered - no two axle powered stuff sometimes offered. For thinner purses, Lifelike engines are good, especially the SD 7/9s, also Atlas although they cost more. Good luck. -Greenriver.