Sandro, I stand by my statement. I just don't believe that in a model running at scale speed we are creating enough lateral force to truly require the downforce that SE generates. Now if you're running trains at scale speed that blows the doors off the prototype, maybe I'm all wet. But if you are within scale speed tolerances, I think SE is basically a visual improvement.
If you are going to superelevate the portion of the curve entering/exiting a portal, it will take some major work to return to non-superelevated status partway through the same curve as the one entering the tunnel portal. If I were interested in some superelevation for looks on a model layout, and such a curve entered a tunnel, I would not want to have to fish into the tunnel to extract an object that didn't like the way I de-superelevated the tracks. Instead, once so committed, I would continue to provide the rolling stock and engines with a nicely laid curve, superelevated throughout, until the time came when the superelevation would normally begin to diminish. OIW, do it all or don't do it at all. Curves inside of tunnels offer sufficient problems as it is. Finessing superelevation partway along a hidden curve to save time or materials would, to me, be an invitation for lots of frustrations.
I have to agree, if you wanna work the numbers... When calculating scale vs weight...generally it's not just 1/87th of the real weight for HO obviously because the real thing is 87 times bigger each way LWH. 87x87x87=658503. So divide the actual weight by this #. So a full 100 ton hopper for example at 267000#'s divided by the 658503 comes out to close to 7 ounces per rail car and quite a bit heavier than average rolling stock. Add that to the fact that superelevation going up a grade will have a tendancy to strightline the train but will help going down grade. All in all I think it's something you don't want to bother with unless the appearance is more important than operation.
When did super elevation become commonplace? In my location, we have a BNSF mainline with ex- ATSF rail dated to 1976 that IS superelevated, but a shortline's also ex-ATSF trackage (which dates to 1910) is not superelevated. Did it become commonplace around the same time that welded rail did?
