Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO)

[steinjr]

Stein, thank you for the detailed explanation.

LOL - some of my friends claim that they need a big wrench to make me shut up sometimes - a quick bonk on my head, and then maybe they can get in a word edgewise while I am still dazed ...

Under the standard condition running trains on free track in open space I would not recommend to do 4% in a 22" radius. But this is a very special situation. It is a ramp used by short cuts for switching in an extreme dense old fashion industrial area. I can imaging it will be a visual perfect fit and the short cuts will be no problem in operation on the ramp.

I've been having second thoughts about the ramp in the upper left corner. I decided to cut it back to 2%, and only go up 0.5" around the upper left hand corner. That way I can use the three tracks closest to the wall along the lower wall as a yard, and hopefully be able to back up the curved incline with fairly long (for this layout ...) cuts of cars - maybe 7-8 cars.

Next question is what I want the most - to have the main rise higher up above the barge terminal scene (but not have a crossover from the main to track no 2 out from the wall), or to accept less height difference between main and the barge terminal scene.

Having the three tracks closest to the wall at an even elevation from the middle of the left wall to the door would be best operationally, since the three tracks then would form a flat yard (even though the lead in the upper left hand corner would be on a 2% incline), and I could have a crossover from the main to track no 2 from the wall.



But I did a quick mockup to see how things would look with the main at elevation 0.5" vs the main at elevation 1.0" behind the barge terminal scene, and I still don't know ...

Lower left corner, if I let the main rise a further 0.5" (2%) around that corner corner:


Lower left corner, if I keep the main (and the two yard tracks behind the main) flat at elevation 0.5" (2%) around that corner corner:


Same scene with trains to give it a visible scale:

Rising main around lower left hand corner:


Flat main around lower left hand corner:


View from the ground level in the barge terminal, main rising to 1" above barge terminal:


View from the ground level in the barge terminal, main staying at 0.5" above barge terminal:


Have to sleep on that decision, I guess.

What do you think, guys ?

Stein