I am adding an elevated section of track to my layout. The section is about 34 feet long with no crossover or any other thing that may cause conflict. I am wanting a maximum height increase to be about 4 inches at the peak. I am planning on using the woodland scenic riser combinations, then placing cork roadbed on top of that before laying my track. Has anyone used it before and what luck did you have using a similar idea?
I have used the risers a lot on my layout and they work great! Very smooth transition and also work very well for curves. The only "problem" is that if you are using just a single track on them, make sure to fill in the holes on the side of road bed with sculptamold or something similiar so that when you ballast the track you don't lose the ballast down the holes.
The only drawback to the Woodland Scenics risers is that they offer no transition pieces for the ends of a rise, so you'll have to figure out how to do that on your own.
Those risers work great but if you are using the slopes, the transition is sudden and so can cause uncoupling issues. 2% works OK, anything steeper really needs a transition. Sloped risers for multiple tracks on curves is another puzzle unless you don't mind slightly different grades..
I cover them with plaster cloth before I lay track on them.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I am going to use the 2 degree riser set to reach a 4 inch height and use another riser set butted up to its partner riser to climb back down at 2 degrees; just basically a hill over the 16 foot run. Little to none of the run will be straight, it will be made up of a couple large 32 in radius curves. Does anyone have anything similar, any pictures?
When you do the bottom if you are using caulk for the cork, use a generous amount at the bottom of the grade and stretch the cork out a bit and pin it, this will give you the gradual transition you need at the bottom. For my top I power sanded the transition into the cork but I am sure that a better solution could be found for the top.
Missouri Pacific BNSF I am going to use the 2 degree riser set to reach a 4 inch height and use another riser set butted up to its partner riser to climb back down at 2 degrees; just basically a hill over the 16 foot run. Little to none of the run will be straight, it will be made up of a couple large 32 in radius curves. Does anyone have anything similar, any pictures?
I used the 2% riser on my layout and my incline is a large loop and with a long enough train will pass over itself. The one thing I found with my loop after glueing the track down was I had to test all my locs to make sure I had no uneven spots that would make a wheel come off. I had to shim a few stops but it has been running trouble free for over 3 years. I just wish I had double mainline it.
i think you should be just fine.
I don't have pics as I tore the layout down to the bare "table" if you will in order to expand it and I don't have a digital camera anyway.
I had a 3.5 foot x5.1 foot HO mini layout and used 2% WS inclines/risers to "vary the terrain" to avoid the "plywood prairie" effect.
I used the inclines {the "ramps"} on the curves {18" and 15"} and you should have no problems with wider sweeping curves.
I used WS foam roadbed on the top, and yes, watch out forthe "pit falls"into the crevices formed by the felxibilty segments. {I used cloth dipped in plaster.}
Also, I had NO ISSUES with the trains derailing. uncoupling, or otherwise misbehaving while transitioning from flat to the inclines to the flat again at all. I considered the transition to be small enough. Maybe I got lucky. Others say to ease the incline, I think it, at 2% is "eased enough"
I used a riser {the same height end to end} for a short space between the up/down inclines.Again, no problems.
I think you should be fine.
STAY AWAY FROM THE 3% or 4% inclines! {don't ask me how I know this...I tore down the first two layout formulations and changed the configuration with those inclines that just didn't work so well-they were murder for my trains to pull on an over & under at least in such a small space}
Have Fun and enjoy the hobby!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
galaxySTAY AWAY FROM THE 3% or 4% inclines!
I can echo that. I have used 2 inclines on my current layout. One of them is a 3%. Yes I have had trains come apart. To the best of my knowledge this has not happened on the 2%.
Most of the track on the grades is Kato Unitrack and is not attached very firmly. A small portion is glued down and I used double stick foam tape to secure it in a few places but a lot of my track on the WS inclines is secured by gravity. For reference I model in N-scale.
The inclines make it really easy to achieve grades.
Modeling a railroad hypothetically set in time.
One extra problem is that the WS inclines end up being slightly steeper than labelled. This is because each incline section is 24" long, so they have to 'round off' the grade to make it fit the 24" sections. For example, an exact 2% grade would raise the track 2" every 100 linear inches, or 1/2" every 25", but the WS inclines rise 1/2" every 24" - which works out to 2.0833%. Similarly, the "3%" grade is 3.125%, and the "4%" is actually 4.1667%. Not a big difference of course, but maybe just enough to affect some trains.
Lynn
Present Layout progress
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/290127/3372174.aspx#3372174