Friends I made a good model of 00 gauge ( 12 by 4 ft) when my wife sadly died recently.
I want to make model like HOn30 coal mine layout
I cannot locate agents who have loco which can climb
graduate steeper than 1 in in 20 inches
My own attachment shows complete paper plan of total track path
The blue track is 120 inches from base to top of mine
At 1 in 20 the top track would only be 6 inches above base
That is not very high
Am I doing something wrong ? Would be most grateful for advice
Many thanks Stan Evans
There is no attachment so we can not see your track plan.
You need to host any photos on a separate hosting web site and then link to them on here. You can not upload photos or files direct to this forum.
1 in 20 is perhaps a bit steep.
The situation gets worse the tighter the curves as well because of the extra rolling resistance.
That said a Minitrains loco would probably go up a 1 in 20 with three or four of the small four-wheel wagons. If you need to put a coal load in the wagons you will have to find a lightweight material. At one time you could get 00 scale coal made from cork, but I have not seen this for a while.
You would need to avoid using anything on the rails like graphite as this would make the loco slip more on the grades, so dead frog points like the Peco set track points would almost certainly cause running problems with the locos stalling at slow speeds.
I think the Roco H0e locos would be too light without adding a lot of lead.
Hello Brian
Thanks for your help
When I study model HOn30 coal mine on the internet
the train must be special for it seems to climb graduates steeper than 1 in 20
because I am not clever enough I cannot find any details of this internet example
Perhaps that loco has 2 engines mounted in one model loco
Any suggestions
Many thanks Stan
If you are referring to this layout, the loco looks like it has an eight wheel bogie diesel chassis, my guess would be it is one with traction tyres, the body is also probably filled with lead. The wagons also look like they have been modified by cutting away the poor running inside frame under frames and fitting new free running outside frame chassis.
Yes 1 in 20 can be done, but it is not recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ5ake8FCEU
Hi Brian
Many thanks for reply
Looks as if my challenge for 2020 was a waste of time
and my knowledge is not really up to it
Perhaps I should forget it and think of something else
Many thanks for your help
Kind regards Stan
Stan
May I suggest you try something a little less ambitious?
Ted Polet has an excellent web page http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2011/pages/enixnie.htm describing the development of his wonderful Nixnie.
Some thlng like this, based on a coal mine would be a good starter layout.
Just a thought.
Andy
Andy
Many thanks for your suggestion
I appreciate your interest
I will read it thoroughly and come back to you
Thanks
Cheers Stan
I totally agree with Andy.
Start with something simple. A simple circuit with a couple of loops and sidings for example.
Building a rabbit warren type layout requires a lot of planning and construction skills. They are probably the most difficult type of layout to get right.
I have a very good example that was built by a highly skilled modeller with 50 years of model railway experience who was also a mathematical expert. It took him over two years!
Hello Brian and Andy. Thank you for your help and advice but I must tell you I am not a traditional modeller. I am over 93 years old and life is what I can do this year. I only started working on model trains 00 gauge when I lost my wife and in 3 years I built a 8 X 4 feet lay out and then added a 4 X 3 extra board for a model two canel locks . Not brilliant but very satisfying especially all the help I got from model railway friends. SO this year I decided to go for something very challenging and exciting. I have spent over 3 months trying to get a workable Coal Mine systems as per the web site example. Today I was at last successful and have got paper plan right. As soon as you talk about inclined slopes ( 1 /20) it gets complex.My plan has rules suggested by quite a few people. 009 gauge track, min 18 in diameter curve, 1 inch in 30 inches slope and min height of bridges 2 and a quarter inches. Please wish me luck By May I hope to have achieved some measure of success. Kind regards Stan ps please can you tell me how I can get pictures into Forum
Quote from: Stan Evans on April 09, 2020, 00:06ps please can you tell me how I can get pictures into Forum
You need to load them up to a Photo Hosting Website and thenyou can post them to the forum. You cannot download them direct to the forum.
Most people use Imgur or Flickr, the choice is yours but I've found Imgur less fiddly to use having tried both.
Quote from: Stan Evans on April 09, 2020, 00:06
ps please can you tell me how I can get pictures into Forum
You can use the 'Attachments and other options' to add photos. However there are restrictions as follows:
Max of 4 per post.
Max total size of all photos 300KB.
Max size of one photo 300KB.
I reduce the photos to 640 x 480 size and also use 10% JPG compression when saving the modified photo.
This keeps the size down.
Quote from: Stan Evans on April 09, 2020, 00:06Not brilliant but very satisfying especially all the help I got from model railway friends.
Stan, this sums up the most important things about our hobby, and which sometimes we all need to be reminded of! It's less about making amazing layouts (though that's great for those who have the skills, time and other resources) but more about the satisfaction and pleasure derived from what we do, together with the 'fellowship' of sharing with other likeminded people and learning from others. All of these enrich our lives, which has to be good!
So please press on with your endeavours, and always remember Rule One: It's my layout and I can do what I like with it!
Please keep us up to date with future developments.
David.
Quote from: clayliner on April 09, 2020, 20:01
Quote from: Stan Evans on April 09, 2020, 00:06Not brilliant but very satisfying especially all the help I got from model railway friends.
Stan, this sums up the most important things about our hobby, and which sometimes we all need to be reminded of! It's less about making amazing layouts (though that's great for those who have the skills, time and other resources) but more about the satisfaction and pleasure derived from what we do, together with the 'fellowship' of sharing with other likeminded people and learning from others. All of these enrich our lives, which has to be good!
So please press on with your endeavours, and always remember Rule One: It's my layout and I can do what I like with it!
Please keep us up to date with future developments.
David.
Hear! Hear!
I have made good progress on my 2020 project..The first thing I had to do was to establish the basic rules to work too. The best track to use was the 009 gauge. The circle curve must not be less than 18 inches diameter
A realistic slope was One Inch for every 30 inches. This meant to get a 6 inch coal mine face I needed 6 feet of track I drew an accurate plan (not scale) of a figure of eight on my work bench marked in 30 inches gaps of zero to 6 inches. Clearance under the two bridges was 2.23 inches min. It took me over 2 months to get a drawing showing on accurate track lay out. The requirement was for a continuance track lay out of three figures of eight. A 6 ft figure to get up from zero to the top 6 inches and the other 2 to get the train back to zero. What I found difficult was every time I made changes to meet the rules I found I had introduced a new problem down the line. Hurrah !! by March the diagrams all checked out after rigorous rechecking so I could now start to build the track ridges. I cut pedestals and glued them 7.5 inches apart (Half 30 in) and increased their heights by 0.25 inches. I then cut strips of hard card board straight / curve joining the top of the pedestals. I now had the major track with the correct slope - Zero to 6 Inches. The track ridge was by its very nature, a pedestal every 7.5 inches, was a little unstable so i had to insert in these gaps correctly sized additional supports.
This procedure had to be carried out for the other two figures of eight.
Finally I now ready to fit the actual tracks and sadly I am still waiting delivery of 18 X 36 in tracks watch this space WILL THE TRAIN GET TO THE TOP !!!!
That looks seriously impressive Stan. Well done, you layout is off to a great start.
It should be great fun for watching trains go by. It reminds me a bit of Dynamite Canyon Tramway --- but on steroids! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lbdod_dXJU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lbdod_dXJU)
I like it Stan. Once up and running it will be a lot of fun.
Robin.
If you have not tried 009/H0n30 before you will find that the track laying has to be spot on with no kinks, dips or steps in the rails.
This is far mor critical than with standard gauge 00/H0.
Having a firm and solid trackbed to fix the track onto will help a lot with this, a 'soft', less secure and uneven trackbed will make this worse.
I would cut out the trackbed from a sheet of 1/4 inch (6mm) plywood to give a solid base to lay the track on.
One other tip is to pre-bend the rails on all the curves, this will help stop kinks at the rail joints and ease the forces on the rail chairs.