Here's what I'm thinking. At Steubenville, the land slopes upward away from the river. Market Street climbs west toward the hills. This photo shows the area looking down (east) towards the river.
- Downtown Steubenville.jpg (41.94 KiB) Viewed 3759 times
To create this slope, I am thinking of doing the following:
- At the top (towards the back of the layout), I would install a 30" deep table running across the width of the town that would be level. Track coming across the bridge, the station, and all of 6th Street would sit on that table.
- Below that (moving towards the front of the layout), I would install a couple of tables that (together) would slope downward 2" over 6' (a 2.27% grade). Those buildings along Market Street as well as 5th Street and 4th Street would sit on shimmed foundations.
- Below that in the vicinity of Richman Brothers and the Sinclair Building in the diagram below, I would install another table 30" deep running across the width of the town that would be level.
Below is the area in question (ignore the foot markings for the purposes of this discussion).
- St-new.jpg (673.18 KiB) Viewed 3759 times
Specifically, my questions are:
1) Is there a better way to handle this grade?
2) Will this approach screw up the operating characteristics of the layout? I realize I will have to super-elevate the PRR mainline.
3) Any other reactions, thoughts, input?
Thanks,
George
