| One of the questions that often gets asked about | | | | greater than 4% you may start to have problems with |
| model trains scenery is about mountain building and | | | | the trains moving up and then plummeting down and |
| slope angles for trains. | | | | virtually all commercially sold slopes are between 2 |
| If you are just starting out with your model train kit, you | | | | and 4%. |
| too may be stumped when it comes to building model | | | | To put this into perspective for you so that you can |
| trains scenery. After all we are not all sculptures and | | | | build the best model trains scenery, if you can imagine |
| artists. | | | | a 10" piece of track and you slope it so that one end is |
| Aside from the actual design of the mountain there | | | | 1" higher then that is 10% and is way too high. If you |
| are other considerations to be made, for example; | | | | have 20" of track 5% would be 1" high at one end, still |
| 1) How tall should my mountain or hill be to keep in | | | | a bit too steep. But 2.5% which is round the ideal stage |
| perspective with the rest of my model? | | | | would be 40" of track connected and one end 1" high. |
| 2) Will it look nice if I use a bridge between two | | | | This is almost a perfect grade for your train. |
| mountains? | | | | The higher your mountain, the longer your track would |
| 3) Which is better when it comes to construction, | | | | be. If you have a 10" mountain, you would need 400" |
| foam, paper towels or cardboard and plaster or | | | | of straight track to reach the top. |
| cement? | | | | So there are two ways to beat this, one is to tunnel |
| 4) Can I use plaster cloth over the foam or | | | | through the mountain or the other is to build two |
| cardboard? | | | | mountains and pass the train back and forward from |
| 5) When I lay my track how steep should the incline | | | | one mountain to the other until it reaches the top. It |
| for my train be? | | | | could look very nice and is perfect if you cannot put in |
| 6) Is it better to round the mountain or should I tunnel | | | | long runs. |
| through it? | | | | It may take a lot of bridges to do this or if your |
| 7) Where do I get expert help to show me? | | | | mountain is big enough you can travel the train around |
| These are some of the questions I have recently seen | | | | the mountain until it reaches the top. |
| on forums and it seems there are a lot of people | | | | So now you know how to work out how tall your |
| confused about what looks best when it comes to | | | | mountains should be compared to the size of your |
| model train scenery, but I was also impressed to see | | | | model train kit and you can start drawing plans for |
| how many people were helping with great answers. | | | | your model trains scenery and keep all looking real and |
| One answer about the slope also helped me too and I | | | | still have your trains moving around as desired. Perfect |
| would like to share it with you. | | | | result! |
| The ideal slope is round about 2%, and anything | | | | |