You guessed it, Chris; the tighter the radius, the more rolling resistance. I think it is tied to the angle at which the flanges attack the railhead - the trucks want to go straight, but the rail keeps pushing on them through the curve. It's one reason I pretty much gave up on helixes; six engines to get a 30 car train up a helix looks a bit ridiculous when it hits level ground, unless you want to uncouple the helpers, and send them back to the bottom like the prototypes do. I guess if they were pushers, it wouldn't be so bad, but still a pain in the rear.
Looking good Chris, there is gonna be a lot going on. I wonder if you could show some more detail on how you'll get access to covered track (for what you've done as well as going forward). I'll be dealing with some of the same challenges, though not quite to your level. You mentioned the ratio on the helix, I know that the tighter the radius the more the grade increases (Ron was faster than me... ). I wasn't able to find an easy calculator, but of you can take a straight track with the same grade as your helix you can see what the difference is for the number of cars the same train can pull. Maybe the helix will need a helper? Look forward to continued build updates. Greg
I have the same helix. I used Kato superelevated double track with concrete ties and have pulled 24 cars with one Kato engine with no problem. I assume the super elevation has a lot to do with it.
I would presume you're right-along with the fact that it's a perfect circle, and more than likely, a perfect grade. For some reason my segments sag in the middle-I believe I really could have used the eight supports versus the four I've got. Nevermind, the most important thing is that I don't have any derailments. If I have to have helpers, so be it
Realizing now that my helix is going to somewhat alter my train running plans, I'm having to rethink my backstory (the same backstory that I haven't actually told anyone). At this point it wouldn't be too hard to work a helper arrangement into things. With the yard on the top level receiving full loads from the bottom level, I could use one of the two secondary tracks (bottom level, town side) as a staging for the helpers, complete with a sanding tower. Thoughts for the future...
Think Cheviot Hill in Cincinnati on the C&O. Multiple pushers heaving the freight loads up out of the Ohio Valley headed for Chicago - great pusher action! And then of course, there's always Pennsy's iconic Horseshoe Curve...
I'm beginning to think that pusher help might not be necessary. I've seen plenty of prototype photos that have an enormous mish-mash of power up front-sometimes even 8 units for manifest made up of GP7s 40-2s, 30s etc-even the odd F-Unit here and there (no joke). So it's possible I might just aim for something along those lines. In other news, I'm about 2/3rds of the way to having a whole loop of double track down. Have to run to work for now, but tonight will hopefully get some progress pics up. Cheers!
Finally got them down today. I couldn't really test them because of using friction throws, the switch points will swing freely until the turnout itself is secured in place (the friction occurs between the roadbed and the throwbar-if that's the right term for it), so once they were stuck down the fun began... I'll say this: they work. That is, they work after much cursing, screaming, death-wishing, and most importantly, tweaking. The problem occurs when the switch is set to the inside line (15"R), and the wheels will just wide up over the outside point rail. On one of them I was able to tweak it with tweezers and the job was done. On the other one I ended up having to shim the point rail, right where it secures to the throwbar, which then led to me super-gluing the whole switch because I'm a big clumsy oaf. That led to five minutes of constantly throwing the switch back and forth so it couldn't dry in place (which would have left me no choice but to shoot something cute and fluffy) So anyway, the turnouts now work flawlessly (I think) and I only super-glued four fingers together. Fun times.
"shoot something cute and fluffy?" Now that is great anger management! :-D Seriously, glad the turnout works! Watched a vid and it looks like you are having fun with the RR, nice job so far!
I LOL'd on "...big, clumsy oaf". I am also a BCO and admitting it is half the battle. Good points to make notice of (no pun intended) as I will be putting in some Caboose manual throws myself, so I'll make sure I'm prepared for that step so I don't have to shoot anything cute and fluffy, or errr... anything else. Lookin good! Greg
Big milestone reached today: loop of track down, trains running. This is where I shut up and: [video=youtube_share;pWaDRU_I0BA]http://youtu.be/pWaDRU_I0BA[/video] Staging is connected to this loop, in fact, the only thing missing from this level now is a short connection on the inner loop and the tracks to the helix. And of course, still have some work to do on those ***** curved turnouts. Super-gluing one shut has turned into a nightmare you can probably imagine. Getting it unstuck was one fun task. Getting rolling stock to roll over it derailment free is quite another...(did I say fun???)...task As for testing, have had the train in the video running since about 2215. So far, so good.
Very very happy. All I've been doing is running trains! And thank you Unfortunately progress is going to be at a bit of a standstill given that I'm now well into the first of two rounds of midterms (why they still call them 'mid'terms is beyond me) Further to that coursework is piling up and you can tell that we're into the meat of the semester-which I am not enjoying by any means. So for now I have little choice but to read up on law in economic context and such while listening to manifest freights and coal drags roll by. Could be worse Cheers!
An economical lawyer? lol Yeah, no lawyering for me. I'm shooting for something business related, right now its economics, probably pick up a minor or two along the way because I can't make my mind up. Funnily enough my long term career goal is to open up my own hobby shop. Perhaps a minor in entrepreneurship should be investigated
Midterms are gone, have finally gotten ahead of my workload, and so have had a little time to get to messing around with things. Most of my time has been taken up by straightening out some clearance issues, and messing with those god-forsaken curved turnouts. Thankfully, that has meant plenty of train running while I stand back and ponder (about 90% of time spent railroading) and even a few other bits and bobs. Finally got around to the beginning of the upper deck, and have been fleshing out the upper deck benchwork Ignore the bits with clamps on them, they're just temporary support so I could figure out joist height etc. Very pleased with how things look for now. Joists will be suspended from the two 7' rails that will rest on the spine (the spine being the thing with the vertical bits). In other news: GF's sister is moving in early june. Guess which room she's getting? >_< *sigh* Thankfully there is still the sunroom, and so, late may will see the 'proof of concept' with this whole 'portability' thing. Of course this sets a deadline-the sunroom is significantly smaller than what I'm in now, so all major benchwork has to be constructed and all the roadbed (and preferably track) laid and ready to go. One final note: due to the size of the sunroom, and the fact that it has a laminate floor, I am going to put castors on the layout so it can be moved easily from one side of the room to the other. Cheers!
Seems you are getting some incentive whether you want it or not nice to see someone's layout moving forward. Looking real nice so far.
