Garden Railway Forum

Having a rather (too?) steep climb on my garden railway, I’ve often thought about having a go at adding a rack and pinion centre rail like the snowdon railway. My engines have the power to climb, but it’s slipping of the wheels that cause a train to stall with any reasonable load.

Anyone attempted anything similar that can share any tips?

P.s don’t offer lower the gradient of the climb

There has been a discussion on this subject and this might be useful to you?....
https://gardenrails.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=12683

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Tue May 12, 2020 11:37 pm There has been a discussion on this subject and this might be useful to you?....
https://gardenrails.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=12683

Excellent thanks!

This sounds interesting!

By my calculations Snowdon would be about 170' tall in 16mm scale, so I reckon you might need planning permission...

Keep us posted,

Andrew

If you are running live steam then fit an inertia device.

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2020 10:42 am If you are running live steam then fit an inertia device.

Yes I run live steam with a Accu Ragleth (as well as battery, a RH bulldog)
I'm not familiar with inertia devices though, can you give me more info on how they work etc?

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2020 10:42 am If you are running live steam then fit an inertia device.

That will only help the OP if the inertia device is in a trailing wagon. The inertia device smooths power delivery to the wheels. The OP's problem is traction to deliver power to the rail. If an inertia device is in a trailing wagon than it might help as that wagon essentially provides an extra driven axle when the loco has a tendency to stall.

As you have an Accucraft Ragleth you cannot fit a SSP Slomo to the loco itself as it has inside valve gear (no space to fit the device to the driving axle).

There is a tender option:

http://smallsteamperformance.com.au/kit ... or-wagons/

I posted this link about 4 years ago, Just keep scrolling down and you'll see rack live steam on gauge 1.
John

http://www.buntbahn.de/modellbau/printv ... 93&start=0

Video of the live steam rack loco shortcut below.

https://youtu.be/r_NCekLKhPY

Interesting. Looks like the racks are produced by LGB, just need to see if there is any way of adding a cog to the axle of a Ragleth. Might be a project worth a try!

You may well need to incline your locomotive's boiler to take account of the gradient on your proposed rack line - dependent on where the take off of steam produced in the boiler is located on the back head. There is a risk that water in the boiler will cover this outlet rather than steam from the top of the boiler entering it. Looking at the K&NWLR solution a vertical boiler was used angled in the frames to match the incline it was ascending.

I'm not sure how well LGB's rack system will take to some accidental excessive heat, even though it's designed to be out in full sun in the garden. I look at one or two places where I have lit up a live steamer on my LGB code 332 based line. Hmmm.

In our forum in Austria, a member built a cogwheel locomotive (actually 3 for different buyers) and touched on his experiences with the LGB track in the construction reports (especially the drive cogwheel).

https://www.schienendampf.com/34487225n ... t1933.html

All in German, but why should you feel any different than me, I also have to translate the majority of the articles I read here into English, or have them translated.

greetings from Austria
Gerald

Tingewickmax wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 9:26 pm There is a risk that water in the boiler will cover this outlet rather than steam from the top of the boiler entering it.

and not only that, with a straight boiler the front area of the burner tube (internally fired models) is when driving uphill without water cover.
Due to the intense heat from a gas burner, the solder seams made with silver solder can open again.

The builder of the Z1-Z3 models was the first to build a Z13 and used an LGB Plastic gear, and a cylinder unit from Regner a two-cylinder oscillating



Because I just mentioned a two-cylinder Ozi from the Lumberjack:

https://gbheinz.hpage.com/schraegerfriedl.html
So there are some things to be concerned about with cogwheel locomotives, also that a longer track on a (model) mountain quickly ends at a height that can only be reached with a ladder.

Greetings from Austria
Gerald

PS:
MDT Schweer has built a beautiful rack-and-pinion locomotive, unfortunately rarely found today