I mentioned a few days ago altering the track plan to include a run round, whilst hopefully maintaining a sweeping curve (well, as 'sweeping' as you can get in a 6' Scenic section!) into the station platform.

That track plan is, again, below.

One thing I've never tried before, but have always wanted to, is to incorporate a gradient into the plan. I tend to plan my layouts and schemes on XtrkCad to avoid the 'optimistic pencil' that I know would result if I tried to draw the plan out freehand, and whilst it gives the opportunity to raise or lower the track, I haven't worked out how to do it properly yet!

Inspiration for this is, as usual for me, from a couple of places - firstly the real life location, which gently undulates towards the coast, and from Iain Rice. On page 70 of his 'Layout Design' book (Haynes), Iain discusses Gradients, and shows the plan for his Cade's Green layout, which features a 1 in 42 rise from the end of the platform off-scene. The 'hook' for me was the following couple of sentences:

"The resulting gradient may be less than a yard long, but the resulting 5/8in difference in elevations at the top of the incline places the stop blocks of the goods siding at a visibly lower level than the main line as it crosses the lane and heads into the fiddle yard"

Whilst I didn't want an incline up and over the road crossing, as this is the exit to the coast, where if anything the gradient should be downwards, I quite fancy it in the other direction, putting the main higher than the headshunt/engine shed area.

A few calculations later have given me three options. If you look at the above plan, you will see the start of a curve at the 28" mark, which gives me a good starting point.

A 1 inch raise would give a steep gradient of 1 in 28, which might be asking a bit much of small locos hauling what, in reality, would be rather heavy loaded shingle trains up from the coast.

I next had a look at a 1 in 56 gradient - or a 1/2 inch rise, which would be considerably gentler, but perhaps not give enough of a difference from a scenic perspective.

The solution then, is somewhere between the two - 3/4 inch over 28 inches gives a gradient of 1 in 42. This would give a shallower gradient than that ehi h I have previously deemed "too steep" yet also enough of a gradient to make a visible difference.

I then decided to look into how I would go about this from a practical perspective, and quickly came across the Woodland Scenics Incline system. As luck would have it, they produce a '3% Incline/Decline Starter', designed to give a smooth rise of 3/4 inch over 24 inches. This would take most of the hard work out of the terraforming using polystyrene blocks, already cut to size.

This can be seen here -http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/ST1415, and a cursory Google has revealed plenty of UK Stockists at around £6. It would still leave me with 4" to build myself, but as I have an idea for a curved but removable back scene and need a locating point for cassettes, this could be more of a help than a hindrance.

I intend to dig the box of unopened SMP track I know is in the cupboard out tomorrow and mock it up, but I would be interested in any thoughts on this or experiences with the Woodland Scenics system. This may also cause a slight alteration to the plan, swapping out the Y Point for a standard medium radius, to draw the headshunt away from the main line, and allow for an embankment, perhaps topped with a hedge or wall, to further enhance the visual separation between the levels.

Edit 28/1 10.03;

Whilst on the computer paying some bills this morning, I decided to have a quick play to see what changing the point would look like. The resulting plan is below, and I've also marked the gradient in Red to make it clear where it starts.