Sloping

[Lui]

I cant seem to find anywhere the measurements or the fittings to raise my track up a level, I have tried to do it by eye but most of the slants i have tried the DMU is not powerful enough to climb. Any thoughtsCheers Lui.

[EtchedPixels]

I cant seem to find anywhere the measurements or the fittings to raise my track up a level, I have tried to do it by eye but most of the slants i have tried the DMU is not powerful enough to climb. Any thoughtsCheers Lui.

A good rule of thumb is no more than "1 in 50" (ie up 1cm per 50cm). You can get better than that but some stock has problems (the 3 car 101/108 is a very good test for this). Steam stuff seems to be more sensitive than diesel.

[oscar]

I used these:-

http://www.ecscenics.co.uk/

[BobB]

You do not say which rolling stock you're using. I have some GF 108's, a 101 and Dapol 121 and HST. All negotiate a 1:20 gradient around a 1st radius (9 inch) radius. The GF class 47 will pull more than ten wagons/carriages up the slope. I think the trick is to have perfect alignment vertically and horrizontally.

Maybe there are some kinks in your track ?

[Mustermark]

You do not say which rolling stock you're using. I have some GF 108's, a 101 and Dapol 121 and HST. All negotiate a 1:20 gradient around a 1st radius (9 inch) radius. The GF class 47 will pull more than ten wagons/carriages up the slope. I think the trick is to have perfect alignment vertically and horrizontally.

Maybe there are some kinks in your track ?

I would agree there BobB.  I have 1:30 or so (3.5cm rise over about 3.5-4 feet of track) and all my diesel traction manages it without any trouble with some pretty huge loads.  They are on much less curved track though, but I think you may be onto something with the need for the track to be flat along the direction of the sleepers (I don't mean level because you can have a camber on the track, I mean the "not kinked / wobbly / eneven" kind of flat).

[Pete Mc]

When I set up the inclines on my layout,which was before Dapol brought out their HST,I had set them up so all the stock I had would climb them.However with the launch of the Dapol hst,and me owning 2 of them I bought enough coaches so I could run full eight coach prototypical rakes as per the east coast mainline in the 70's/80's.

When set up,the hst struggled like crazy to get up the incline in either direction and stopped if their wasn't enough momentum so just sat there spinning its wheels.I also have a 108 3 car unit and that struggled quite badly as well,in fact,if I added a mk 1 coach this rendered it impossible for the dmu to make the gradient so I had to extend the length of the incline to accomodate these trains.

My iclines from baseboard level to the upper level are now almost 5 foot long and all my stock goes up without problem.

There are all sorts of maximum rises to use as a rule of thumb,but the one I used was the one where if my stock goes up it then thats fine by me.I'm not sure if its as steep as the Lickey incline but what I.do know is that I don't need a loco to push the train up as well as the one pulling the train from the front.

Also when you do set up your inclines,uncouple the loco at the front and pull the train by hand,you'll be surprised at the amount of work you are expecting the loco perform.A full 8 coach hst rake,deltic flyer or a mail train weighs a fair amount so it is important that they go up with ease,as a struggling train looks very unprototypical,even to the most unrivet countery sort of person like me.

Pete

[EtchedPixels]

You do not say which rolling stock you're using. I have some GF 108's, a 101 and Dapol 121 and HST. All negotiate a 1:20 gradient around a 1st radius (9 inch) radius. The GF class 47 will pull more than ten wagons/carriages up the slope. I think the trick is to have perfect alignment vertically and horrizontally.

Maybe there are some kinks in your track ?

My 108 won't do 1 in 20 curve. I know this from experiment and as a result I'm currently assembling a single loop spiral to match the fiddle yard to the layout end. Fortunately I've got the space to get an R2 circle in.

I agree entirely on the comment about needing good alignment. I'm not sure my 1 in 25 or so is perfectly in the vertical and that may be part of the problem.

[Jerry Howlett]

I also planned for long climbs so I think I went for 1 in 50 minimum , I also tested out all my locos prior to this. Wrong !!!, having bought stuff over the previous 10 years including many items from e-bay I didn't think to check that if one loco could manage the climb all the others of the same type would. If you are reading this and have minitrix locos look out for missing traction tyres !. I have a Britannia that will storm the bank with 12 coaches and 2 others that can't drag their sorry tenders up the same slope. So try EVERY loco and formation before deciding on your gradient.

[mr magnolia]

Our layout has some 1 in 30 ish inclines, and all diesels manage this fine. (no steam here!)

The problems (when there are any) genereally seem to stem from the wagons or coaches themselves - its surprising how much friction there can be in just one wagon that has its wheels 'not quite right', even if thats only a small misalignment, such that I cant adjust it to make it better. We have 1x16 ton wagon out of a rake that causes all sorts of issues and is best left sulking in a siding. Also one out of 3 of our suburban coaches is a pig and wont fly.  It has to sit sulking also.  As noted by Pete Mc, its worth pulling the load up yourself, as that also allows you to find the rogues, if you add the wagons one by one.

[Lawrence]

Purely personal choice but I tend to go no steeper than 1:30 on the straights and 1:40 on a curve, obviously in this case less is better 

[Elvinley]

My layout has some really steep inclines, but I tend to only run short trains over that part.

It would be good to have a sign like this on there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hopton_Incline,_Derbyshire.jpg