Power for Grades

Your operational plans sound much like the old Colorado Midland Ry., a particular favorite of mine. Their mainline grades ran up to 4.5%! Most of the Midland's lokies were ten-wheelers. The three classes of 2-8-0's were used mostly in helper service. If you are going to have really long grades it could make for some especially interesting ops where battery power would be a real asset.

I would add one lokie for approx. each five cars on the grade. This wouldn't be too far from what the prototype did and should protect your engine gears. A helper station at the foot of the main grade to add helpers and a couple of runaround tracks at the summit to remove them would be a real hoot. A 12 car train might only need one lokie on level track and have to stop at the helper station to add a helper in the middle and another on the rear ahead of the caboose to ascend the grade. While all three lokies could be controlled with one transmitter you would also have the option of separate engineers running each and coordinating movement with whistle signals. I love this [" border=0>]

I think your plan is very doable with batteries and certainly the ops would be greatly enhanced over track power in this particular instance. One other option too if you're not sure is to use track power for the main train running and batteries just for the helpers to give them more independence. Then you could verify for your self if batteries will do the job as you'll still have track power to fall back on. Just don't skimp on your battery packs.

On my dad's railroad, we used aluminum because in 1980, it was the only way to get curves wider than what LGB produced. At the time, we used it for track power with no difficulties over the 4+ years we ran power through the rails. When we switched to battery power, we just stopped cleaning the rails. Expansions followed using more aluminum rail because it proved quite adequate and inexpensive.

Once I got through school and finally bought my own place, I opted for aluminum code 250 rail because I liked the smaller profile, it was cheap, and based on my experiences with my dad's line, I knew it would hold up well when built on a good foundation. The only thing I didn't like about the aluminum was having to paint the rails to get them to look realistic. I tried pre-painting them, but the tie strips I was using were so tight that they'd strip the paint off the base of the rail as I slid them on. When I moved, the track stayed with the house, so I didn't have the luxury of taking it with me.

Now, I'm using the AMS brass code 250 track. Really, the only two reasons I'm using that instead of the aluminum is that it was actually comparable in price (don't know if that's still the case) and I decided that I liked the way brass weathered, so I wouldn't have to worry about painting the rails out here. The fly in that ointment is that the particular alloy AMS uses is very slow to oxidize, so it's still--three years later--a bit yellowish.

Later,

K

Posted By up9018 on 04/16/2008 10:28 AM
My railroad will basically be in a 'L' shape, measuring along the ground it would be approx. 150 linear feet, (approx. 300' of track) the overall rise will be around 16' by the time you reach the top end, with approx. 10' of that being in 1/2 of the layout. I plan on making the first large elevation change with the old Colorado trick known as the Georgetown Loop, I'm hoping to gain 4-5 feet in this feature alone, with the remainder being a switchback and a reverse loop (or wye) at the end. and I want to keep the grade at 4% max. My Annies will most likely remain on the lower (less severe) portion of the layout, but will probably double head a short train up the "hill" on occasion.
Right now I'm working on 'Improving' the first of my Annies, when I considered switching to battery power, but the thought of my high grades I didn't want to be in a situation where I would be changing batteries every 20 minutes.




By your description you have a minimum of a 10.7 percent grade. The curves at the bend in the "L" shape, as well as the curves at both ends, will only add additional drag... you effective grade will probably approach 15 to 20 percent!

Me thinks you need to reduce the requirement of a 16-ft rise from one end to the other. Either build trestles on the low end or fill it in, and dig trenches/tunnels at the high end. A 16-ft rise in 150-ft is just too much.