N scale handbrakes on grades

[DKS]

what about weeds on the sides of the tracks, interfearing with the sides of the trucks? I dunno.....

As much as weeds would look cool, I'd consider anything that interferes with wheels or trucks to be a potential source of derailments, not to mention that fine fibers can get into loco mechanisms. I'm very much in favor of the popup pin.

Alternatively, if you want something aesthetic that also provides a positive stop, why not use a cluster of fine wires that can be raised and lowered? Drill a bunch of small holes, then thread green-painted phosphor-bronze wires into the holes. Under the layout, solder the wire ends together, and then solder the bunch to the end of the rod that raises and lowers. As a positive indicator for operators, connect a panel-mounted LED to the Tortoise motor.

[peteski]

We had a need for some sort of a train brake to keep the coal train from rolling downhill onto the main line.  Friend of mine found a train brake device which consisted of a fascia-mounted plunger mechanism with LED status indicators and a roll of RC model airplane flexible pushrod.  It is a flexible stranded metal cable in a yellow tube.

When installed on the layout, the control plunger was installed on fascia, over the control panel for the town it was in. Then the pushrod is routed few feet under the layout and on the track end the pushrod is attached to a 0.032" music wire rod riding in a press tube.  The rod comes up between the track, slightly off-center (not to catch the coupler).  This solution works quite well.  The rod rests against the end of the hopper car.

But we were never really happy with the feel of the brake plunger on the fascia.  We ended up removing the flexible pushrod and driving the brake rod with a Tortoise machine.  Since the fascia plunger panel already had a micro-switch incorporated into it (for controlling the LED indicators), we used that switch to drive the Tortoise.  The indicator LEDs were hooked up in series with the Tortoise motor and they give a positive indication of the brake status.  The noise is not objectionable (especially since most of the turnouts on the layout are also Tortoise equipped).

I don't have any photos of the brake rod itself, but here is a photo of the plunger and its is bezel on the fascia.



The brake has been reliable for probably over 10 years now.

[Jim Starbuck]

Just a thought.
Could you add something to narrow the gauge in one spot similar to a retarder in a hump yard?

[sdodge]

I have to ******** a train in a few locations on my layout. A simple unelegant solution I use is to put an old rusted wheelset in front of the cut of cars. Not really prototypical but they do blend in with the scenery when not in use and you are not limited to a specific location.

[wm3798]

Having seen Randy's layout for the first time in Bedford a couple weeks ago, I think the Tortoise solution is just too clunky.  There's not enough clearance below the scenery deck to allow for such an installation, unless I miss my guess.  Randy notes a 20" reach to the location of the issue, and I think the best bet would be something very low profile, and low tech, and therefore, low maintenance.

May I suggest the click pen mechanism, introduced to us here by Kevin Beck (justTrainCrazy) and installed by me in my Ridgeley yard when I needed a switch throw that provided little clearance.


This is the connection at the switch, which is obviously a side to side movement, but a linkage to form a simple lever would certainly provide the range of motion necessary.  Maybe a simple rotating drum with a piece of fishing line attached that rotates up then clicks back down.


You can see the pen barrels sunk into the fascia, and the bicycle cable that actuates the motion here,


and here you see the pen clickers along the fascia.  I used a 1" paddle bit to drill the recess, then drilled through whatever the diameter was I needed to clasp the pen barrel.  I then cut the masonite fascia to fit over it, drilled the one inch holes, finally painting the recess black.  Depending on what bank you steal your pens from, you can even color code the clicker!!


On this one, I got fancy and attached the SPDT slide switch to route frog power right on the pen barrel.


Once the yard deck went down, the whole mechanism is inside the 1.5" frame with no clearance issues below.  I don't think it hung down more than 3/4".

Lee

[randgust]

That's pretty cool, Lee.   I have to study that. 

The Ross Run module has hand-throws up front and where I have clearance issues, it's all the hidden switches and the ones up high on the switchback that already have Tortoises in place, (yes, both sideways with modified linkages and on lowered voltage) to fire the track switches.   I can certainly use them, I'm just looking for something more passive in nature than a brick wall (wire) to run into.    The trick may be to use monofilament something; enough to hold the car but not enough to completely derail it if coupled from the uphill side pushing down and you even slightly overrun the joint.  I'm thinking maybe if the end formed an arch like a bow, with one end secured in the roadbed, and the other end on the Tortoise drive (or clicker/cable, whatever) going through the roadbed.  if you got the throw distance 'just right' the car axles would drag on it on the up position and retracting it would be completely  in the clear.  You could still push over it without derailing, hopefully, for the inevitable screw-ups.   Still not sure what monofilament that would be, but something.

Or, maybe if I did use a conventional vertical wire up into the axles, if you held the top car on the hill, instead of against the bottom car underneath it, hitting the 'brick wall' coupling up wouldn't necessarily derail anything as there's little or no slack to mess with.

What I'll have here is about four cuts (2 loads and 2 empties) of 6 25' log cars each, pretty much in dedicated strings.  The cars will not get reordered, so it is possible to consistently equip the 'downhill' car orientation with magnetic axles and hold it in place that way.  That wouldn't work in most situations but it might here. 

Probably two of the 6 cars are actually on the slope, the other 4 are on the flat.   But my tests proved that the SLIGHTEST attempt to couple on would roll them all downhill. Enough force to even push the MT knuckles open got them rolling.  And its' a darn short passing siding above the hill!

I've already found out a couple things about using magnetic axles; man, I forgot just how UGLY those old trucks were, they don't retrofit into MT archbar trucks for beans, and while one axle centers into a magnet with sufficient force to seemingly hold a car, two seem to nearly cancel each other out.   More experimentation, but I'm seeing here what I kind of hoped, a vast number of ideas I'd never even considered.