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Ups & Downs
I wasn’t satisfied with the long grade going into the mountain (on the right) and I wanted to correct it to prevent regrets later…talk about discipline, ugh! I spent a few evenings sanding and testing, sanding and testing, sanding and then realizing I sanded too much! Blunder! I hope to fix with a brand new Woodland Scenics 2% grade riser kit. Funny how a corner can really slow a train going up a grade; learning everyday.
Meanwhile, my wife suggested that it would be cool to run the yard while trains were going around the loop…Yes, that is the plan!…but the plan required everything to be DCC and she wanted to run DC locomotives in the yard…Yes, the rich guys would just buy “their wife” (use air quotes) a decoder or two, but I have no idea how much I will be spending on scenery and buildings and and and…so I decided to completely rewire the layout into zones on double pole double throw switches. The mainline can now toggle between DC & DCC power, the yard can now toggle between DC & DCC power, the roundhouse is DCC only. The compromise is that no DC loco can interact with the turntable/roundhouse facility, which will motivate me to add decoders if I find a loco precious enough to display at the facility.
Lastly, I wanted to take a break from the layout and become more familiar with rolling stock. I assembled several coal car kits by Precision Masters in Southern Railway paint. I really love the color and bold lettering used on these cars. The trucks were a lot to be desired, so I replaced them with Atlas trucks with metal wheels from donor rolling stock. I have plans to add coal ballast atop the removable plastic coal insert and weathering them before calling them complete.
Thanks for joining my journey,
Hububba
Andrew, Modeltrainmedia and 4 others2 Comments-
Curves absolutely do slow trains down on grades…but not always the main culprit. My local club layout has a mountain with track behind it, and we all thought it was the tight curve slowing the trains down on it until I went back there with my phone and discovered it’s a whopping 7% grade! So they’re looking into ways to fix it because even trains with 3 big road diesels on the head end tend to stall out on it.
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@Pennsylvania_421 Thanks! Yeah, I discovered a few issues…the track was slightly cambered in the back curve, the rails on some of the (used) track felt rough to the touch, and some of the rolling stock I was testing with were not smooth rolling, a lot of friction in the trucks/wheels.
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