When it comes to model railroading, I'm something of a heretic. Go on any of the popular model railroading forums and ask about curves and you'll be told that the bigger the curve the better. Yes, for adult railroaders who want their layouts to look prototypical, this is sage advice. But for people with limited space who simply want to experience the joys of runing model railroad trains, this is a narrow dogmatic view.
One of the reasons that I love Kato's N Scale Unitrack is that they have the widest range of curve radii for N scale track track I know of. And they're not afraid to give us tight turns. The smallest radius curve in Unitrack is 8 9/16 inches. This means you can turn your train around in just over 17 inches (although Kato warns you that six axle locomotives may not be able to navigate these tuns). If your space is limited, don't let the rivet counters tell you that no railroad is better than the one you can build in the space that you have. Just be sure to choose locomotives and railroad cars appropriate for your track.
The same thing is true of grades. While it is true that real-life railroads normally don't have many grades that exceed 2%, if you want to build an up-and-over, and you don't have space for eight feet of grade, don't limit yourself because a 6% grade "simply isn't done". The limitations should be the weight and power of your locomotive and the number of cars it is pulling, not your fellow modeler's opinion. Modelers, when someone asks what the maximum grade they can use is, the criteria I've given are a correct answer. "Grades over 2% don't look real" doesn't answer their question, it simply states a fact only tangentially relevant to the question.
Model railroading is a hobby. Hobbies are supposed to be fun. If you can have fun running your trains around tight curves and up steep grades, don't let other people spoil it for you.
One of the reasons that I love Kato's N Scale Unitrack is that they have the widest range of curve radii for N scale track track I know of. And they're not afraid to give us tight turns. The smallest radius curve in Unitrack is 8 9/16 inches. This means you can turn your train around in just over 17 inches (although Kato warns you that six axle locomotives may not be able to navigate these tuns). If your space is limited, don't let the rivet counters tell you that no railroad is better than the one you can build in the space that you have. Just be sure to choose locomotives and railroad cars appropriate for your track.
The same thing is true of grades. While it is true that real-life railroads normally don't have many grades that exceed 2%, if you want to build an up-and-over, and you don't have space for eight feet of grade, don't limit yourself because a 6% grade "simply isn't done". The limitations should be the weight and power of your locomotive and the number of cars it is pulling, not your fellow modeler's opinion. Modelers, when someone asks what the maximum grade they can use is, the criteria I've given are a correct answer. "Grades over 2% don't look real" doesn't answer their question, it simply states a fact only tangentially relevant to the question.
Model railroading is a hobby. Hobbies are supposed to be fun. If you can have fun running your trains around tight curves and up steep grades, don't let other people spoil it for you.
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