Page 19 - 38. MRH13-04-Apr2013
Basic HTML Version
aerial photos of plants in areas like you want to model. There is
a closed plant at Davenport, Calif., and another plant along the
UP just east of Tehachapi for starters.
“As for modeling a plant, the part that interfaces with the rail-
road would be cement loading silos for product and maybe
coal unloading facilities if the plant gets fuel coal by rail. Once
the rail facilities are modeled, the rest of the plant could be
fit in as partial structures, or backdrop photos or paintings
depending on the space you have to work with.”
That's when Hylik revealed a little more information:
“I'm not in the USA. I see that as an advantage because I can
select just the parts I want from several real plants and model
that.” He posted his track plan (1) and said, “As the plant will be
a major industry on the layout, it will have considerable space
compared to other industries.
The plant should be located at the right side, just a little above
the turntable on the plan. The turntable and terminal is on a
high level, the plant on lower ground. The grid has 12" squares.
Nothing is built yet so I can accept more suggestions.”
There's more to read at
.
– MRH Forum
Q.
Say you had a very winding, steep, mountainous descent
with loaded cars of coal or ore -- how would the motive power
be arranged to best handle the momentum, braking, car slack,
etc? Prototypical, modeling, or theoretical answers OK.
– Ken Goudsward
A.
Milt Spanton was first to reply:
“The Missabe's worst grade was the 2.2 percent descent from
its ore sorting yards at Proctor, Minn., 7.7 miles to the Duluth
ore docks. They set retainers on a portion of the train, based
on a table in the rules book. The train's power is/was only on
Questions, Answers & Tips - 3
the front, with up to 110 cars. In the steam era, the loco ran
backwards. In the pre-radio days, the conductor would start
dumping air from his end (the caboose) if he judged the train
was moving too fast.
Travis added: “Milt pretty much nailed it on that one. In mod-
ern times you may see some distributed power on the rear
end, but what he said about the retainer valves pretty much
sums it up.” (Setting retainers reduced train line pressure,
allowing brake shoes to drag on the wheels, keeping the speed
of the train in check. See more at
)
Dave Husman pointed out that train handling techniques have
changed over the years as technology changes: “Power on the
point,” Dave said. “Unless the railroad has remote control or
DPU they probably wouldn't have power on the rear.”
Nick Brodar added another perspective: “If you needed helpers
on the way up, nowadays, many places leave them attached on
the way down for added dynamics. Midtrain or rear end.”
Dynamic brakes on diesel-electric and electric locomotives use
the traction motors as generators to increase rolling resistance.
The energy created is dissipated as heat through grids, or fed
back into the overhead wire system.
Ken Rickman, who is a locomotive engineer when he isn't post-
ing to MRH or scratchbuilding steam engines, added, “Since
the entire train would be descending the grade, the slack
should remain bunched. Modern practice would be to have
the locomotives on the head end, using dynamic braking if pos-
sible, or perhaps a combination of dynamic and air brakes.
As has been said, if the train had helpers of DP (distributed
power) units then they would likely be assisting in braking
as well.
MRH-Apr 2013
