Has anyone ever modeled a hump yard in O gauge?

I've got plans in the back of my mind for one but not sure if it will work or not.  We could use Ross yard switches, however, our would exit tracks and not be stub ended.  With today's easier rolling cars, too much of a hump and out the other end they would go.  Getting the right hump and installing some type of retarder system, such as compressed air from underneath, would be one of the major factors.  Not sure if I want to go in that direction or just keep it a flat switching yard.

I've heard about hump yards on layouts but not sure how many in O. 

I built one back when I had a big train-yard on one side of my layout: not much slope, but enough you could barely see it, and it worked.  It had a coupler built in at one point so when a car was pushed over the hump in uncoupled right there.  That worked too.  

The problem I had is that my various rolling stock varied (still do) greatly in how much friction they have.  Some older ones, particularly postwar stuff, even if well cared for, would not move down the slope without a little nudge every few inches, while a few of the newer ones are just frictionless and would almost run away from me down the slope much too fast.  Still, it was fun in a way.  Ultimately I removed the trainyard to make way for my downtown and 'Streets, so I don't have it anymore. 

"Not funny dude!"

Jerry

you mean like this...

Two important parts:

1. At beginning of grade transition I used a piece of Atlas 40 inch flex using Luan under base. 15-20 inches is level screwed through luan to plywood.  Its then slowly tapered with foam and tested.

2. I bent a piece of Atlas 40 inch rigid track at top. 

The hump was able to handle all my yard diesels. For the period most hump diesels seemed to be SD-40's or smaller.  I did test it with longer ones and it worked fine, but didn't operate it that way.

Used foam pieces with Atlas track on luan.  Once it worked the foam was locked in place with great stuff then adhesive drywall tape and fusionfiber.

The receiver end was 0-54 switches.

As a note..This was modeled after the CSX frontier yard. In recent times it was used more as a long yard lead then humping in the traditional sense.  I could move auto racks over this hump, just like the real yard.

CSX hump as yard lead with auto racks

Bill d

These guys are building a serious model railroad which does include a fully functioning hump yard. When you open this link go to page 4 first, and starts scrolling down slowly until you see the first of the hump yard construction photos appearing near the bottom of that particular page….then follow the thread for some exceptional examples of big time model railroading. I could spend hours reading all the info they have shared.

http://www.aorailroad.com/phpB...p;t=120&start=60

 WOW!

That layout is amazing.

its a great o scale layout in making. When money and space are not a concern )

Gr-r-r-r. I tried it a few years back; my measurements said that it should "just"

work, but the realities of construction (and the unintentional mental fudging while

planning) revealed that I just didn't have enough room. Physics are just completly

unforgiving.

I made it a flat yard instead, which did allow me longer yard tracks.

But, the above looks great, and a Hump is still the Holy Grail of my "next" layout.

Hump yards have another good point: they have been around a long time and

cross RR eras - so one can operate one with either steam or diesel power. 

Great stuff guy's.....Maybe  Steve at Ross will get some ideas on a device to apply a little pressure to the trucks to slow down these baby's.

My opinion is that it would be a great feature if you large layout  but it takes up a lot of space for the lead hump and retarders into a yard that will hold a couple of hundred freight cars. Otherwise probably not worth the time and  effort if you don't have a lot of space to devote to a hump yard.

Well, it depends on how demanding to the "prototype" you insist on having. On my first 027 layout, I built a 6 foot yard extension on the layout, that was a hump yard. It wasn't long enough nor declined enough to require any kind of retarder, which was intentionally part of the plan - prototypical or not.

And I can second Lee: mine worked just fine. An uncoupler on the first lead track into the yard. But then as Lee continued (and Tom before him stated) the weight and types of trucks will cause some variance in how well this works. Modern Lionel and K-Line cars (without roller pickups) worked perfectly. Postwar trucks with free rolling wheels did not work as well. And for whatever reason, modern MTH trucks on RailKing and Rugged Rails cars seem to have a bit more drag. They certainly did better than cars with postwar trucks, but not as well as other modern manufacturers trucks.

But the amount of grade going into the yard will effect operation too. I can't imagine Bill d. (above) having too much trouble with cars not rolling down the grade.

It was a neat thing to have on a layout, but have not had an extension off my layout since as I had on the first one, and haven't modeled a hump yard since.