Terry,

Flexible track will bend quite enough in the vertical plane to produce more rapid transitions from level to gradient then some rail vehicles can successfully negotiate. There's doubtless as many ways to build a gradient as there are railway modellers, but a generally accepted tachnique is to use thin ply - 3 or 4 mm is good - as a track base, anchoring this at the datum level, and then supporting it at regular intervals to produce a smooth transition to the gradient.

Hope you feel at home and come to enjoy this 'forum lark'.

 

Hi,welcome to the forum,there is thread going on in "OO" called layout gradient construction which may help you

 

Hi...couple of things to consider when gradients are mentioned;

How much room is available, how shallow can you make it, what sort of loads are going up it, and lastly...have you considered what loads your Locomotives can all comfortably pull?

This has been asked before and a number of very useful responses to past threads have been posted on this popular subject which you will be able to find easily enough, but if I can just mention a good general rule...remember that whenever a gradient and a curve are considered either near each other, or in the same proximity, the effort needed to pull a load uphill is multiplied by the drag effect of pulling the same load across a curve.

jules

 

Hi Terry,

Welcome to the forum.

This is a link to a model railways group's web page dedicated to questions on gradient design for model railways that is worth a read.

Dave

 

If you have the room to put in a suitable gradient, and are using a solid top base board, you can drill a starting hole, then cut out three sides of the track bed so that you end up with an elongated flap. Raise the end that's at the top of the grade, not forgetting that the transition has to be very gentle so the drivers don't leave the rails. Try and keep the gradient straight and remember you need quite a bit of room.

The flexible track won't give you any problems with bending for the transitions if you don't go too sharp.