Max Incline

[James in FL]

611 struggles up Saluda;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUPIynJq7tg  (3:03 mark)

Southern training video on the grade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IABM8UPplY

[jward]

Thanks 203, My grandson was born in Athens Tn. and I am using the Smokey Mountain area as my design plan area. Your first link was quite apropos.

jack,

for inspiration, you may also want to take a look at two related operations on the Carolina side of the smokies.

the graham county railroad, now abandoned, ren from Robbinsville to a connection with the southern's murphy branch at topton. motive power was a shay and a ge 70 ton diesel, both of which are produced by Bachmann. this line also featured a 6% grade down to the southern interchange.

the southern railway's murphy branch, now spun off as the great smoky mountains railroad. this line featured spectacular scenery, 3% grades, and sharp curves that make it a natural for a model railroad. Bryson city  had some rather extensive industries for such a small town, and would provide a natural focal point for the model version.

[Trainman203]

Didn't you see the Graham County in operation, Jeffery? That was one I missed back in the 60's.  Saw the Reader in 1963, the Mississippian in 1964, the Magma Arizona in 1965, and the Green Brothers Gravel Pit line in both 64 and 65.  Those were the days.  The twilight of steam in unbroken regular revenue service.  A beautiful sunset it was, truly, and I'm glad to have seen it.

[jward]

Didn't you see the Graham County in operation, Jeffery? That was one I missed back in the 60's.  Saw the Reader in 1963, the Mississippian in 1964, the Magma Arizona in 1965, and the Green Brothers Gravel Pit line in both 64 and 65.  Those were the days.  The twilight of steam in unbroken regular revenue service.  A beautiful sunset it was, truly, and I'm glad to have seen it.

you are right, I did ride the graham county. I must have been about 10 and we bought tickets to ride the freight train, technically a "mixed"....they were using the shay on the excursion trains at the time and we had the 70 tonner for power. we spent most of the ride in the caboose, but they had to leave it at the top of the 6% grade because the 70 tonner couldn't pull the inbound cars off the southern up the grade with the caboose too. the grade was spectacular, and seemed even steeper than it actually was because the gc was dropping over the rim into the Nantahala gorge on a 6% grade at the same time the southern was climbing out of it on a 3% grade. so the apparent grade was 9%.

if you like steam on heavy grades a trip to west Virginia to ride the cass scenic railroad would be worth your time as well.

[Trainman203]

I was at Cass in 1973.  I remember three  engines under steam at once, all with different whistles.  It sounded like  a 1920s junction.  No reverb in DCC can replicate what  those mountains do for steam whistles.

[jward]

when I was a kid, my dad was & still is a western Maryland fan. after they abandoned the mainline, which was a local railroad, we started to explore the branches including the line to Webster springs. which passed within about a mile of the cass railroad  at spruce, wva. we would camp out along this line, which was one extremely sharp curve after another, and when the train came in the middle of the night you could hear the diesels throttle up and down, and the wheels squealing around those curves for an hour before they got to us. all of that echoing off the mountains was, like you said, a memorable experience.

postscript:
my dad later built a layout based loosely on this line, which he still runs to this day. and the railroad itself was reborn as a tourist line by the same people subcontracted to operate the cass railroad. in fact, the two operations have been known to run cooperative excursions via a new connection built between the two lines at spruce.

[Jack TS]

Thanks to all for the inspiration and advise.
I attached a link to PhotoBucket (hope it works) with first phase of my build. I went with a 3% incline then another 3% to get to the "mountain" area on right of layout. Then did a single 3% on inner route left side. Hope to get some more work done this weekend with grandson. If anyone sees anything seriously wrong with layout feel free to comment. My loco and 4 rolling stock seem to make it all around just fine.
Jack Destin, Fl.

http://s1006.photobucket.com/user/jackts/media/Train%20Build_zpswdqpxtdi.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

[Len]

You want to use the 'Direct' link, that starts with an 'i' to make your pics show up here. Like this:

http: // i1006.photobucket.com/albums/af189/jackts/Train%20Build_zpswdqpxtdi.jpg (Added spaces before & after // to break link so you can see it)

This is what it gets you using the 'img' tags:



Looking forward to seeing more pics as your layout progresses.

Len

[Jack TS]

Thanks Len. Will try that next time around.

[electrical whiz kid]

Jeffry;
I have never been to Cass County; it must be beautiful, especially in the autumn.  I had the good fortune to go to Brown County (chasing women) South of Nap-town when I was in the service-and the place was well worth the trip.  The two places are pretty much of the same personality. 
Incidentally, reverb itself would not do it; but digital delay or some form of multi-repeat (could be) possibly installed on a decoder on some future date in time.  that multi would do the trick; especially if it could be mixed with reverb.

Rich C.

[jward]

personally,i think that we've been approaching sound entirely the wrong way. I wonder if it would be better to mount several large speakers under the layout in various locations, with a decoder that emits a wifi type signal to the speakers. each speaker would adjust its volume according to the strength of the signals received from the decoder(s) so that you could get effects like bass and echo that would actually follow the locomotive around the layout. as your trains move around, the sound would be constantly increasing or decreasing in each of the speakers as their proximity to the train changes. thus the sound would appear to follow the train. the decoder could be fitted with some sort of light detector circuit that would cut volume in half when it entered a tunnel and restore it when it emerged.
I think this would be far superior to trying to cram a decent sounding speaker into the locomotive like we now do.

it would be wonderful to realistically capture the sound of a train in a quiet mountain valley.

[jbrock27]

I love your idea!