station ramp gradients

Go to a station and count how many steps you walk. But I think they will vary as some where used for pushing luggage up and down. Others just as a means of ending the platform

I'd love to do that, but we dont have any platform ramps of that ilk here in Perth. I can probably get a rough idea by counting sleepers and bricks on the platform wall or something.

Ta anyway Mal Oz

I See said the blind man. As the platform height above rail level is more standard use that x how many times you have to move you scrap of paper with the high marked on

Roughly 8 degrees to the horizontal should be about right. Platform height in 4mm scale is approx 12mm (depends on your trackbase & wheel standards) I use 10mm balsa as frame then top it with Wills plastic sheets (Paving stones in my case).

HTH Ian

trackbase &

(Paving

For British outline in 4mm scale, the surface of a platform should be

12mm above rail head. Most proprietary/RTR platforms are far too high. Platforms should always be lower than the footboards and main chassis frame of a MKI coach.

Graham

trackbase &

(Paving

For British outline in 4mm scale, the surface of a platform should be

12mm above rail head. There are exceptions where the protottype is slightly lower or higher, but 12mm is the standard. Most proprietary/RTR platforms are far too high. Platforms should always be lower than the footboards and main chassis frame of a MKI coach.

Graham

Thanks Ian. You mentioned paving stones...silly man...now you opened up another query ;-)... I have some photos (from around 1911 and some in the early to mid fifties) of the platform I am attempting to duplicate As you indicated I thought paving stones would have been expected. However on all the pictures I can find there definitely seems to be a tarmacadam surface or similar, definitely no sign of pavers. I can also see a patch of tarmac that has worn away from one of the ramps that clearly reveals what looks like flat cobble stones. The station is (was) GER and was built around 1860-1870, (closed in 1967) so I can assume that at some stage towards the end of its working life that tarmac may have replaced the original cover.

I'm thinking of sticking to the traditional pavers but the cobble stones have me stumped.

Thoughts anyone ? Cheers Mal Oz

P.S. anyone know where I can get some stone bullnose platform edging in 4mm ??

The British firm Metcalfe does plastic stick-on sheets of paving slabs with kerbs, the process gives the kerbing a slight radius on its edges, this may be of use. It is OO scale. Regards, Bill.

Thanks Bill, yes I have seen those in the model shop we have here, they may give me something to work with. I also managed to create a row of 'white bricks' using 1/4pt very light grey for defining the mortar, using MS-Word, and printing them on coated paper. They printed up remarkably well. I'm thinking I can 'wrap' a strip of these over the platform edge to give the desired effect.

we'll see ! Cheers Mal Oz

I bought the Metcalfe station platform kit, but found they were a little flimsy when assembled, so I ended up using a solid piece of wood for the platform, topped by dark grey heavy cardboard to simulate asphalt, projecting slightly to represent the ovehanging edge. I scanned the Metcalfe stone platform edging and brick facing strips, joined them up to make longer ones in a graphics program, and printed them with an ink- jet printer onto full-sheet adhesive labels. I cut out the strips, applied bricks to the platform faces, and wrapped stones over the edges.

Full sheet adhesive labels eh ?? Well I hadnt thought of that one. This particular platform doesnt have an overhanging edge, just a row of bricks (larger than normal) on edge laid flush with the rest of the platform wall, with the edge having a slight bullnose. So I think with the combination of my printed bricks and your adhesive labels, I may be onto something here.

Thanks Martin

Mal, On the subject of platform ramp gradients,if you are in Melbourne, go and have a look at any inner suburban station, it's bound to have a passenger access ramp somewhere, and check that grade by counting bricks along and up. If in Sydney, mightn't be so easy, from my rememberance, many stations there do not have ramps but have stairs instead. Other States, I can't comment. Remember, too that the ramp gradients would have been such that one bloke with a luggage barrow or two with a luggage trolley could push these loaded vehicles up the ramp without busting themselves, and control them on the descent. Regards, Bill.

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Ta for that. Nah I'm in Perth, all the ramps that I knew of (and there wern't many to start with since I been here), are long gone. Anyway, someone suggested an 8deg incline would be about right. At 4mm any error in this isnt going to worry too many, least of all me ! Cheers Mal Oz