Complex Track Review

I see a face in those track plans. 

Yeah, I see it too.  Looks like Mickey Mouse.

Rick

Homer Simpson?

It sure is complex.  Are you sure you need that extra loop in the middle of the red part?

Probably not. It doesn't serve any real function and I suppose removing it would allow more room for the town up there.

I was thinking Darth Vader.

Do you have enough vertical clearance where the red crosses over the green (both sides because they're symmetrical)? Grade is pretty steep too.

It's great!.  The two biggest comments I get on what people like about my layout is they all wonder how I thought about stacking it up three levels.  People really like that and they go crazy over the people in the passenger cars - they absolutely love that. 

Stack it up - stack it up like wedding cake it will be a fun layout.

Check it out on m Flickr set  http://www.flickr.com/photos/t...s/72157626165227562/

The trains will climb ok, it's the downslope that will get you. My spiral for my Polar Express failed because it would not consistently stay on the track at the bottom of the down slope. Intended as a portable module section.

The engine was the R-T-R LionChief version. No real speed control. Even approaching the down slope at a slow speed, gravity increased the speed enough to cause a derail at the last curve at near the 0 elevation.

Driving it down at a crawl would have been necessary. I really wanted it to just run. So, Legacy or TMCC action recorder may do the job. Voltage control for conventional use could do it. But, for LionChief a no go.

Since your engines are heavier a mock up and test would be in order. I climbed 6" in 167" of track, 036 with an 048 full and a few 036 & 048 quarter turns to set the exit location at the top.

I hope it works for you. I am going to try a redesign next year. I think the answer is larger radius curves, which I don't have the space to use this year. It will still be an exciting down slope run.

Sadly, there is nothing I can do nothing about the steep grade as that's about as low a grade as I can get within this area. As far as clearance goes, there is slightly over 6in of clearance (5/32 at the bottom vs 6 9/16 at the top).

Both engines have Odyssey to control their speeds through the changes in elevation so hopefully it won't be an issue, but you're right. I'll be doing a mock up run to ensure this works well prior to starting the full build.

Okay, so since some folks seem to only see a face in the design, here is an alternate. Still three tiers, but a little more interesting for the Big Boy. The lower level is the same and the green still rises to 7in. The blue is mostly 7in but transitions to 10in on the backside. The red loop has a short tranisition of .5in to clear the green corkscrews w/ 6in clearance leaving the "summit" at a total height of 10.5 from the lower level.