06-20-2010, 04:43 AM
ORM ...
Most, if not all of the answers to these and other questions regarding minimums, maximums and standards of all sorts relating to this hobby we all enjoy can be found on the Nation Model Railroaders Association Web site, <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nmra.org/">http://www.nmra.org/</a><!-- m -->. The site is a wealth of information and as far as I'm concerned, there are benefits to membership.
My own opinions are that 2.5 % is getting out towards the limits of grade varients ... I will have 2.5% grades coming and going from hidden staging on my own layout, which by the way, is about where yours is right now. I'm returning to the hobby after twenty years of being away (job, family, etc.) so I'm planning and building just like you.
i can't remember what the minimum for vertical separation is between grades, but I sorta recall something like a minimum of 3" above the railhead, but I'm not so sure that allows for some of the modern "tall" stuff, e.g. tri-level car carriers and the like. (I had to dig out my NMRA "Clearance Gauge" and physically measure it. Yeah, I'll admit it ... but it's more important to know where in information can be found than to attempt to keep it all in your head!) Remember to add the thickness of your roadbed and supporting subroadbed when you begin to do the math!
BTW, everyone here seems to have shortened "nicknames" often used as a typing shortcut. I'm often "P5" or sometimes in the Chat area, just "P," so take no offense at you name being shortened, O.K.?
Most, if not all of the answers to these and other questions regarding minimums, maximums and standards of all sorts relating to this hobby we all enjoy can be found on the Nation Model Railroaders Association Web site, <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nmra.org/">http://www.nmra.org/</a><!-- m -->. The site is a wealth of information and as far as I'm concerned, there are benefits to membership.
My own opinions are that 2.5 % is getting out towards the limits of grade varients ... I will have 2.5% grades coming and going from hidden staging on my own layout, which by the way, is about where yours is right now. I'm returning to the hobby after twenty years of being away (job, family, etc.) so I'm planning and building just like you.
i can't remember what the minimum for vertical separation is between grades, but I sorta recall something like a minimum of 3" above the railhead, but I'm not so sure that allows for some of the modern "tall" stuff, e.g. tri-level car carriers and the like. (I had to dig out my NMRA "Clearance Gauge" and physically measure it. Yeah, I'll admit it ... but it's more important to know where in information can be found than to attempt to keep it all in your head!) Remember to add the thickness of your roadbed and supporting subroadbed when you begin to do the math!
BTW, everyone here seems to have shortened "nicknames" often used as a typing shortcut. I'm often "P5" or sometimes in the Chat area, just "P," so take no offense at you name being shortened, O.K.?
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln