Yes I did and very happy with it.

Yes I did one side of all my FT curves.  Looks great.  I used 1/8 inch plexiglass.

You are referring to "Superelevation" I believe, and if so it can definitely add a realistic touch to curved track.  

Bob

I am In the process of adding drywall shims cut into 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 and placed under the outside ties. They end up getting covered by ballast. You can see 2 of the cut shims in the photo.  Nick T. 

Yes, I have done this and it makes highballing on the curves much safer, besides the added look.  I purchased bulk sheets of plastic on ebay (pretty inexpensive) and cut to shim similar to above.  I purchased black plastic sheets and it gets covered with ballast.  I am pleased I did this.

Banking curves make a huge difference in the realistic factor. They look especially good on mountain scenes.

BOO Man,

   I did at one time bank some of my Conventional Tubular Track depending on what area it was located in on my layouts, with the cool slow speed DCS & Legacy Remote control I got away from doing any curve banking, really do not need it any more most of the time.

PCRR/Dave

All of my main line turns are banked and I really like the look. But, you have to be careful not to over do it. Too high and it can create problems. My rule of thumb is a six inch torpedo level, elevate just enough to off center the bubble to the outside center line and no more. And remember to walk your turn into the elevation slowly. Start very low and work your way up to full tilt.

If done right it not only looks great it will also help the tracking of a long string of cars. Done wrong and you will have a nightmare of problems with your pilot wheels as well as some cars coming off of the rails.

You have to play with it until you get the effect you wont. What you are looking for is a noticeable tilt in your turns as well as a smooth transition in and out of the turns that enhances speed and operation.

Oh yea, don't worry about lifting your track, I had to redo mien a number of times before I got them to work right.        

Yes  I did. I used 1/6" basswood strips glued to the underside of the outside of my curves. This works out to a prototypical superelevation of 3". If it wasn't pointed out, you probably wouldn't notice.

You need to extend the superelevation back to the straight transitioning into the curve.

Railroads do not "bank" curves. NASCAR does that.

Railroads use "superelevation" to raise the outside rail. That's the correct term to use in railroading. You "super elevate" your curves.

Banked curves are for lashups.

I am planning on super elevating my main line curves as well. My plan is to use 1/8th thick strips of plastic 1/2" wide by 2" long. In this thread I saw that Gilly@N&W mentioned using 1/16" thick basswood strips. Seems to me that over time heavy consists may push the ties into the basswood decreasing the elevation. If the basswood is holding up, is there any reason to use one over the other. I just want to make sure I do it right the first time.

Mark

John H posted:

Banked curves are for lashups.

LOL!

Gilly@N&W posted:

Yes  I did. I used 1/6" basswood strips glued to the underside of the outside of my curves. This works out to a prototypical superelevation of 3". If it wasn't pointed out, you probably wouldn't notice.

You need to extend the superelevation back to the straight transitioning into the curve.

I did exactly the same thing on my On30 layout, on a 180-degree curve that I knew would be really tough to reach if I had a derailment back there. I noticed that even at the slow speeds I was running, the freight cars seemed to want to lean to the outside. So I placed slivers of coffee stirrers (best $10 I ever spend on the hobby for a box of 1000 of them. Those suckers can be used for just about ANYTHING) under the outside rails from past the transition from straight track at each end of the curve. One other curve was 90-degrees and the rest were lesser than that, so I didn’t see the need to provide elevation on the outside at those points.

After several months of running stuff to be sure the track was how/where I wanted it, I ballasted over it and now you couldn’t tell by looking that the outside rail is higher than the inside. I’ve run trains through that one curve at max speed which I can’t say what that scale speed is for On30 (the DCC controller says about 120 which is probably as estimation of HO speed), but the train is really hauling through there. On the first run after I raised the outer edge, I saw no ‘roll’ in the cars in that curve, even then.

I superelevated my curves way back when. Easy; subtly looks better. 

Something to note: I intend to remove some badly-done s'elevation from 2 curves in 2 corners that cannot be seen from the outside (the only place it is greatly apparent to my eye) anyway and were hard to reach. They "look" fine, but longer locos (steam or diesel) tend to raise a wheel every so often. One day. When I start running things again.

Gilly@N&W posted:

Yes  I did. I used 1/6" basswood strips glued to the underside of the outside of my curves. This works out to a prototypical superelevation of 3". If it wasn't pointed out, you probably wouldn't notice.

You need to extend the superelevation back to the straight transitioning into the curve.

You will notice when your train passes over the curve. A small elevation of the rail head will translate into a very cool tilt of the roof line.

1/16 would be somewhat prototypical in O scale.   Working up from 1/64 to 1/32 to 1/16  in a varied radius turn of course. Did they actually do this pre 1960 on American railroads?

I did on my last layout and will again. Not in my mountain area were the trains will run slow but on the high speed areas. Don

We have super elevated curves on most of our layout at NJ Hirailers. It does make a difference moving trains at speed especially on the helix. Looks good too.......