Morning guys,
So far, striking out on the hump retarders. Posted to RR-Line, Trains.com and here...some ideas, but nothing that would look acceptable.
I think rolling them down the hump on their own power after uncoupling at the top of the crest, would destroy some cars smashing into others. Or, at the very least, knock parts off the cars or derail them.
Perhaps if the incline graded out, then maybe that would avoid damaging the cars as they made their desent to the classification yard.
I came up with an idea that worked....for a few seconds. I added two inside rails to a small piece of straight track, and put them closer together than switch points are. One car actually slowed down, the other totally derailed. I examined what had happened, and the second car's wheels got up on top of the inside track, and that was how it derailed. Bad idea I guess.
One guy came up with magnets as a solution, and using a short coil beneath the track to generate a current that would slow the cars down. However, magnets would have to be installed on ALL cars.
I guess I need to find people that HAVE humpyards on their layout, and how they are simulating the retarders.
In other news, I have nearly finished my Walthers auto distrib facility. All that is left is to build the chainlink fencing, and paint and weather the model. Since this kit is out of production, do you think I could get Walthers to replace the chainlink fencing?
The instructions say it comes with it, the picture on the box says it come with it, and even the discontinued model at Walthers.com says so. But, no chain link fencing was in this kit, and it was brand new in the box when I got it. Hmmmmm.
Anything like that happen to you guys?
Catchya all later.