Grade maximum on an HO Layout

[Anonymous]

Captstrong,

I am not sure what you meant by realistic, however after some thought I think I understand you.

Your trains struggle to the top probably slow down a bit and you lean on the throttle to keep it moving. Maybe even slip a bit here and there.

What I think that would look really good is a way to power a train in HO to move at a set speed 15 smph? up hill by feeding as much voltage automatically as needed to maintain a speed.

In real life, all trains struggle up hill. I have witnessed some steep pulls with sparks flying and sand blasting. That train made it over, but not very fast. One had to stop and see if it would actually stall on that pull. I dont even know how a prototype would handle a steep hill stall. I can do it in a commercial vehicle but there are alot of brakes on a 60 car train.

Good Luck with the woodland senics. One posted about Helixs, I think you can have a 26" helix in a corner that will take up about 4 and a half feet on each side with 6-8 turns going up. It should give you 2% and about a 20 inch rise. I may be wrong but in your case it may be worth looking into.

Lee

[Anonymous]

Captstrong,

I am not sure what you meant by realistic, however after some thought I think I understand you.

Your trains struggle to the top probably slow down a bit and you lean on the throttle to keep it moving. Maybe even slip a bit here and there.

What I think that would look really good is a way to power a train in HO to move at a set speed 15 smph? up hill by feeding as much voltage automatically as needed to maintain a speed.

In real life, all trains struggle up hill. I have witnessed some steep pulls with sparks flying and sand blasting. That train made it over, but not very fast. One had to stop and see if it would actually stall on that pull. I dont even know how a prototype would handle a steep hill stall. I can do it in a commercial vehicle but there are alot of brakes on a 60 car train.

Good Luck with the woodland senics. One posted about Helixs, I think you can have a 26" helix in a corner that will take up about 4 and a half feet on each side with 6-8 turns going up. It should give you 2% and about a 20 inch rise. I may be wrong but in your case it may be worth looking into.

Lee

[Wdlgln005]

I have a 4% grade that is 8 feet long, but I am currently planning to remove it as I expand my layout. My trains slow down quite a bit but seem to make it to the top. The problem is, I do not like how it looks as it is not very realistic. I would recommend that any grade over 2% be in a hidden area of the layout. Metal wheels on my rolling stock are a must for this situation.

The 4% grade becomes a 2% grade @16+ ft. 1% @ 32 ft. On small layouts, you don't have that much space! If you consider using another 16-32 ft to get back down, that's a lot of space you can't use for other things. Most of the small layouts in MR use cutouts to make water areas and additions to make hills. The trackwork stays mostly flat.

[Wdlgln005]

I have a 4% grade that is 8 feet long, but I am currently planning to remove it as I expand my layout. My trains slow down quite a bit but seem to make it to the top. The problem is, I do not like how it looks as it is not very realistic. I would recommend that any grade over 2% be in a hidden area of the layout. Metal wheels on my rolling stock are a must for this situation.

The 4% grade becomes a 2% grade @16+ ft. 1% @ 32 ft. On small layouts, you don't have that much space! If you consider using another 16-32 ft to get back down, that's a lot of space you can't use for other things. Most of the small layouts in MR use cutouts to make water areas and additions to make hills. The trackwork stays mostly flat.