OMG what have I done?

[vanda32547]

Well guys and gals I finally did it. Demolished my existing layout for a new and improved one...OUCH. I did this with mixed feelings of course but my wife seemed to enjoy the destruction part Now for my question ...which has been addressed in many ways from many people on this forum, but now I am confused about grades, distance of grade and incline. I have attached a rough ideo of what I am trying to accomplish and any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated because I am going through withdrawal with NO trains to run. Each square is equal to 1 foot.

Regards Ya'll,

 

[60103]

Bob: what kind of railroading are you planning for? the only grade I see is on the lower loop -- that seems to be just a bit over 1 foot radius. That is a tight curve unless you're logging.
The length for that maight be 6' to 8'; If it's 8', then you have a 3% grade to get up to 3" (a % for each inch of rise) and that's heavy.
formula for length is 22/7*diameter
formula for grade % is rise/distance*100

 

[basementdweller]

I am not very good at reviewing track plans, but to me it looks like you may be creating a problem.
The track that approaches the bridge has a track coming off that doubles back, will this cause a problem with the grades? I would try to find another location for this piece of track, and lenghten out the grades as much as I could.

Good luck with the new layout, be sure not to repeat any of the old problems.
What made you decide to tear down the old layout?
Where do you plan to make improvements over your previous layout?

I am rebuilding my layout now, it has taken much longer than expected, for many reasons, I decided to upgrade my turnouts from Atlas snap switches to Pecos, and add DCC. Best decision ever.

 

[vanda32547]

Reasons for a new layout...

The spare room that served as my train room ended up becoming a "Don't know where to put that? Stick it in the train room" place. :curse: And since we have no garage alot of crap ended up in there.

It got to a point where I couldn't run trains any more because of all the stuff on the layout. This disappointed my 4 year old niece who enjoyed watching them run.

This fact coupled with too steep of grade on the old layout prompted some new thinking. My wife and I decided to clear out the room, paint it and then start over from scratch in order to install some basic kitchen base units and wall units to actually have a place to store all those items that cluttered the room initially. I will be utilizing the 19" space between the upper and lower cabinets for my layout. And the added cabinetry will be great not only for storage of building kits, accessories, and misc. layout stuff.. but to also hid all that other stuff (hers I might add). I will be posting pix as things progress.

Regards,