Adding Elevation and a Yard

So I was playing around with my track plan from the previous post. It has the same elements of a view block to hide 2 staging tracks in the back, and a double line connection in the front. I added different elevations and a yard at the top.


I wanted to make sure that I would be able to have a single engine run 4-5 cars up the incline without a problem. To test this I set up test incline with a board. I found that my engine could do 5 cars on a 2% grade. It could do 4 on a 3%. In my test the track was straight, however on the plan the incline goes around a curve. I figured the effort to pull the cars around a curve instead of a straight line would would effectively add another percent or two to the grade. That would put it the effort for the locomotive at a 4-5% grade. At that point the locomotive could only pull 2-3 cars.


I actually wanted the yard at the top to be located directly above the hidden staging. Doing this would have required 3% grades. As a result I ended up shifting the inner track in a bit further and backing off to a 2% grade. It could have been lessened to about a 1.5% grade but I was planning on using the foam inclines from Woodland Scenics which only came in whole numbers.

The one thing I am not happy about with this plan is that the operator would be a the bottom, on the opposite side from the yard. Since the majority of uncoupling would be occurring in the yard it would make it easier if that was on the side closer to the operator.