Incline/Decline 'foam risers', Variable Grade Creation


B

beiland

Well-Known Member
I know of the Woodland Scenics foam risers, but I have never actual had occasion to use them.
https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/INCLDECLSET


When I looked them up I found they were only available in set grades of 2, 3, or 4 % grades. For some reason I had thought from their appearance that they could be stretched out something like an accordion to obtain a grade % in between those set grades offered,....but apparently not so.


Does anyone else make such a variable grade riser set?


I have several locations on my new layout plan were I could make use of such an item.
 
They are standard grades, but if you want them taller just add foam under them. If you want them an in between grade cut them down with a hot wire knife, or use something like a coping saw. Then buy the appropriate section to meet the rise up and join. You can get the entire grade section, or parts of it separately.
 
I'm using them on my layout. While they don't stretch, they do bend nicely. It's what I have going to my lift bridge.

Next time I need something though, I'll do something different as I had purchased mine years ago and was trying to figure out how to best use them.
 
i don't know about the storebought ones, but the homemade ones can be stretched or shrunk about 1/4 of a grade percentage on each four foot piece ... they are made of two inch wide foam, either green / pink or blue... [not the white], cut with the grade and 'notches' with a home made hot knife .. i made all of the pieces for my layout [fifteen foot by sixteen foot], this way
 
wvg_ca said:
i don't know about the storebought ones, but the homemade ones can be stretched or shrunk about 1/4 of a grade percentage on each four foot piece ... they are made of two inch wide foam, either green / pink or blue... [not the white], cut with the grade and 'notches' with a home made hot knife
Click to expand...
Can you tell me more about the 'homemade ones'?
Are they modifications to the WS ones??
 
Canal or Washboard effect


Perhaps I am viewing this incline business with a jaunted eye?

A number of folks have suggested that the WS foam riser sets could be spaced apart some distance to effect an overall change in grade. But wouldn't that spacing be effectively creating what I might refer to as a canal effect,...series of locks raising and lowering the water level, then a constant level in between the sets of locks? Might also be a washboard effect??

When I began looking at some of my inclines on my desired track plans, I thought I detected some that were going to exceed the recommended practices. It was at that point that I thought it might result in the lowest overall increase in grade IF the grading was carried out over the ENTIRE length of track available. That's when I began to come up with 'fractional' grades that were not met by the stock grades offered by WS.

Yes, I certainly like the looks and usability of their system, but it seems to me that the older cookie cutter methods with 'adjustable risers' makes sense if one is looking to tweak the incline grades.
 
beiland said:
Can you tell me more about the 'homemade ones'?
Are they modifications to the WS ones??
Click to expand...

no, they are completely homemade ... from a four by eight foot sheet of foam, two inches thick .. the elevation is made with two metal yardsticks clamped to the new risers .. notches are cut afterwards .. fill ins are done with small wedges of foam and semi ridgid glue ..they take bends fairly easily, more than two inch lifts were built up with layers of two inch square foam, notched as neccessary ..the hot wire cutter was homemade also, with a household dimmer through a transformer to adjust the heat ... the plywood [3/8 inch] was laid down flat ..
the finished product can be seen at scarm, under the name 'Squirrel Creek' if it you want to see it ..
 
I like using the using cut 1/2 inch plywood cookie cutter style for your inclines? I have a incline on my layout that covers approximately 18 feet from the base grade to the top of 4.0 inches above the base grade. It makes for a nice gentle grade fror the trains to climb or descent.

Greg
 
If you put a 1/8" think piece of masonite, or something equivalent, you shouldn't see any washboarding.
 
(I'm thinking HO scale flextrack.) How fax apart would you have to space them before the track deflected? Flextrack is pretty rigid.
 
ianacole said:
If you put a 1/8" think piece of masonite, or something equivalent, you shouldn't see any washboarding.
Click to expand...
I think my use of the term washboarding was incorrect. What I was really referring to was the 'stepped' manner it might assume making the incline climb. In other works it would go up some stock incline (say 2 or 3%), then it would level off for some spacing, then it would go up another stock incline, etc.

In other works it would not be a continuous smooth incline of some fraction %.

Flextrack by itself is not very rigid,...perhaps 2" span at most?

1/8' masonite is not very rigid either. When I built my big helix I used masonite for the subroadbed. I ended up gluing 2 layers together to get 1/4". And even then I had to put more longitutional supports under it than I originally had hoped for
 
For mine, using open grid benchwork, I used 5/16" thick plywood on risers spaced usually about a foot apart. I have no deflection. The wood should level out any "stepping.".
 
If I had mine to do over again, I probably wouldn't have bought them years ago. The only advantage I saw to them was that I could run them on curves, but as I set up my GS's track, I figuring out how to do mine better.....
 
Is the problem that you have your RR on a flat board permanently attached to some frame and legs below it ? The very reason for open grid or L girder benchwork is for having the easibility of adding risers anywhere, any height..On top of the grid is the subroadbed which in HO is usually 1/2" ply...(maybe it's 2" foam these days)..
You first determine where and how long, including curves, the grade is going to be, up or down.. You then roughly pencil in this to-be-graded right of way sub road bed (about 3.5"-4" wide). You then, using a jigsaw, make cuts following the penciled lines without cutting across it where grade begins.. At end of grade, do cut across it so as to be able to lift it out of the rest of the still-level ply.. Depending on what grade % you want you now attach 1"x3" risers under this, attached to the cross members of the grid, at increasing lengths upgrade or decreasing lengths downgrade to support and form the 'ramp' you want...
I just don't comprehend why folks buy these expensive foam riser kits when the open-grid + cookie-cutter method is so cheap and logical in the first place, and leaves open space below the ramp to run track, streets, waters under it .....
 
MHinLA said:
I just don't comprehend why folks buy these expensive foam riser kits when the open-grid + cookie-cutter method is so cheap and logical in the first place, and leaves open space below the ramp to run track, streets, waters under it .....
Click to expand...
Maybe because..... that's what they want?
 
it's quite easy to move a foam riser, if it's not exactly where wanted ....
not so easy with cookie cutter style ...
 
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