Angle of Incline

[Geomem]

I am very much a Lego train newbie and want to raise a track. Tried it once and the yellow cargo train didn't make it up the slope. Can I raise the tracks four and a half inches over a length of 35 inches and the trains pull up it okay? Thanks Geomem

[Electricsteam]

I read some where the incline is about 1/3 of a brick? Let me go find the website.

[Saint]

That is almost true. The incline for a track is 2/3 Brick, or 2 plates per. So to get the proper slope or incline , just calculate this, You can include curves as well . In this URL you can see a white slope build : http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=262200 , the other side was build with bricks at the same incline, I cannot find any pictures sadly, that was my first LEGOWORLD. If you want to search, just type in legoworld 2002 , perhaps you can find something.

Good luck !!

[pinioncorp]

The general consensus regarding inclines seems to be a maximum of two plates per piece of track, with a smoothing curve of one plate per track segment at the start and end (gradually build the incline, not from 0 to 2 plates but from 0, 1 then 2 plates). What that is in silly measurements I'm not sure. Depending on the weight of the trains you're running it may be prudent to limit it to one plate per piece of track. Also remember that a curve is more strenuous that a straight already, so it'll be hard work to pull a train around a corner and up a hill.

[HoMa]

For my long 8-wide stuff I've used an incline of 1 plate per 1.5 track pieces (= 24 studs), both on straights and long smooth curves build with straight track. If space is unlimited I would go for an even less incline (0.5 plate per track piece), especially in uphill curves.

[Saint]

The incline has to start at 1 plate, after that, 2/3 plates is fine, as for the weight of the train , with 9 volt system a double moter will take at least 5 wagons up. I remember that we did a 20-30 wagon train with some extra moters and that did run perfect.

The first plate is just for the support, at the third track you can start by using technic 1x16 breams underneath. the real challange lies in the fact that the whole of the incline will be this :

Let's say you want to go up 20 bricks = 20x3 plates = 60 plates . For every track 2/3 ( after the fist track that is 1 plate ) so after that 60 plates will result in 30 track pieces ( please correct me if I'm wrong )

So that will result in a LOT of straight piece's .. problem with curves lies in the fact that at one point the track has to cross over itself, then the weight will have an issue if you want to take a full train over it.. a engine by itself can run over everything without problem.. so the best way ?? I'll leave that up to more clever guy's

grtz Saint

[Dav1d]

Going uphill is not the problem - the problem is going downhill, when the train can go very fast and derail, especially if there is a curve.

David

[Brickthus]

I have built inclines for both standard 6-wide trains and 8+ wide 8mm scale trains.

To build to scale, the maximum slope should be 1 in 30 for any model railway of any scale or gauge (true for N, OO, HO and O gauge too). That's 1 plate for every 12M or 4 plates per 48x48 baseplate for a modular layout. I do this on the straights and reduce to 1 in 40 (1 plate per track piece) for the curves, which have 2 straights between each standard curve. In Flexitrack I have mad a similar slope by supporting the track on a series of composite tiles that increase in height by 1 plate for every 16M of circumference at the track centre, supporting every 8M with a 0.5 plate rise (on the studs of jumper plates). The first and last rises are 0.5 plate per track piece. I have a height between lower and upper trackbeds of 48 plates with minimum headroom of 37 plates under a bridge i.e. about 41 plates difference in trackbeds by the time the upper track is supported.

For ordinary 6-wide trains I followed the 7777 ideas book, with a maximum slope of about 3 plates per piece and a maximum rate of change of slope of 1 plate per piece i.e. 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 14, 15 is acceptable for standard train sets.

Mark

[Hrw-Amen]

Myself I have had problems getting longer wheelbase trains up slopes, for example my Emerald Knight would not even negotiate the difference between the flat floor up to track laid on a base plate without the wheels being lifted off and spinning. This does seem to be the main issue rather than having enough power to go up the incline. It has not been an issue with shorter engines using the normal PF Train motor as the wheels are closer together, so i guess it also depends on what you want to send up the slope as well?