Holding Cars in a Siding on a Grade

[Lemosteam]

Why not a rare earth magnet mounted to the bumper (or simulate one) that is mounted at the trip pin height to keep the cars there using the END of the cut rather than the beginning?  Uncouple at the engine, pull away, a bit, back up and push the cars till the last trip pin touches the magnet.  Just need a magnet that can hold the cut at that grade.  When the engine comes up to grab the cut later, it only has to overcome that magnetic force to to pull away.

To find the right magnet, just snap together the same length in Unitrak, glue it to a board, test the load (same set of cars) at the specified grade by mounting different strength/size magnets at the end of the track.  The wheels should be far enough away to not cause a problem.

[nkalanaga]

That would work even better with manual uncoupling.  Push the cars against the magnet, uncouple, pull away.

[SD452XR]

A friend of mine used a tortoise mounted on it's side. The wire would come up just enough to snag the axle, to hold the cars on grade. Labeled the push button "hand brake". This was in HO, but would think this would work in N too.

[peteski]

A friend of mine used a tortoise mounted on it's side. The wire would come up just enough to snag the axle, to hold the cars on grade. Labeled the push button "hand brake". This was in HO, but would think this would work in N too.

Seems that your friend and my friend (on his N scale layout) had the same idea. I mentioned that back at the start of this thread.  The black knob is the "hand brake".

[lock4244]

I remember that Johns Manville facility.  We kids once found something akin to a “tailings pond”, like one might find at an old mine site.  Except this pond had this magnificent light grey clay that you could shape and manipulate like Play Doh.  It didn’t dawn on me until many years later that it was muddy asbestos we were playing with!  To think that a bunch of kids could cycle right in there, and poke and sniff around doing who knows what for hours on end, in an asbestos-based industrial area. Pretty unfathomable.

Yeah, we'd walk across that wasteland to get to the tracks that would take us to the beach where we'd do stupid teenager stuff (mostly drinking beer). There were asbestos clay pipes strewn here and there along the beach immediately adjacent to the plant and to the east at least as far as the east end of the Rouge Hill GO Station. Looking at it now, it's all homes and hard to believe anything industrial was ever there. Oh well, I had fun growing up there.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok, now... what if instead of using a tortoise, we used an actual "brake wheel"?

https://www.oneinchrr.com/CAT/BIG/8210.htm or https://precisionsteelcar.com/details_frght1.html



Rig up one of those with a ratchet setup under the layout and not only do you have a functional handbrake, you've got something that adds to immersion too!

[nkalanaga]

If your spur is steep enough to need a brake, it really should have a derail at the bottom, to protect the mainline.  It doesn't have to functional, but should be there.  Either the fancy point-syle or a flop-over rail-top derail will work.  The latter can be added, in the unprotected position, without changing the track.

In either case, make sure the cars are derailed away from the main!

[wm3798]

I don't follow how the need to moderate the grade on the short line is in anyway relevant to having any siding branching from that short line be level after it branches from the short line.  The turnout has to be at whatever grade the short line is, and the siding branches and then levels off that.  Same as with entering or exiting a helix, which most people don't utilize extensive real estate to transition into and out of.  I don't see the problem.  Dealing with a workable series of grades for the short line is the puzzle in this case, not how to level the sidings.

@bbussey I think the problem exists, not on the industrial siding itself, (which you're right, should at least level out at the loading dock), but out on the branch, where the engineer will have to leave a cut of cars on the main in order to spot cars in the siding.  This occurs quite a lot, especially on a smaller model railroad where the grades can be more pronounced and there's less room to manage the switching.

So really, the brake doesn't have to be on the industrial track, it has to be out on the branchline, where the grade is more likely to be.  Something that is actuated by a tortoise should be ideal, because the range of motion can be adjusted, and the control is relatively simple.  Something purely manual operated with a cable might get actuated too abruptly and cause a derailment.

Does that make sense?
Lee

[bbussey]

Yes it does.

It still seems to me though that it is fully within the layout builder's purview to not build grades on sections of branchline where switching will occur.

[freedj]

I feel like you could use a servo and two pushrods like the bullfrogs use and have a break for both the main and the siding depending on which way you set the servo.  Middle for no brakes. 

[Maletrain]

When switching a siding from the main, I would think you could need a break on both at the same time if they were both on a grade.  If so, then just use 2 independent brakes (of whatever types).

[Paradise275]

Peco makes a catch point switch to hold cars/coaches on a grade.

Rick