S = (Rise/Run) X 100 = (2.5 in/60 in) X 100 = 4.1%. Your grade, S, is 4.1+%. Pretty steep for one loco pulling a train. You either have to drop the height, Rise, or increase the length of track, Run, to bring the grade down to below 3%. To maintain a height of 2.5 in you would need a run of 73+ in to get an S = 3%.
Bear "It's all about having fun."
puffing billy wrote: hi all only new at this model railroading all ways wonted to make one since i was a kid it,s only taken me 34 years any way having trouble trying to work out my hight of my grade there is 5 feet or track to the center of the grade or 60 inchs then gos back down would this be to steep if it was 2.5 inchs tall at the center .im going to run amarican deisel,s and dcc.
pb:
It depends how powerful your locos are, how heavy your cars are, and how you want to run trains. If you aren't sure, it's probably best to stick with the 3% mentioned above. Heavy, high-traction locos and relatively poor-rolling cars (so that train length is limited more by axle friction) tend to mask the effects of grades somewhat. Conversely, grade effect is made much greater when locos are featherweights and cars have very free-rolling bearings.
What you could do to help yourself is to make the lower track dip a bit, maybe one of the inches you need for clearance. Instead of making all the height change take place on the climbing grade, can you reduce the height of the lower passage by making it dip? Split the diff, in other words, and your higher track (if it is an overpass, like on a figure 8) can be kept nearer to 2.5 or 3%, much better for your climbing engine.
So, upper track climbs and then dips again. Lower item, road or track, whatever, can dip and then climb.
Some of you modellers are quite lucky to maintain 4% or less along your model lines.
The prototype's track up to the Bombardier facility in Vermont where the Acela cars were finished approaches 9% in some portions, with the average grade being about 6%.
Modelling this line has been very difficult, and I'm currently trying to figure out how to tackle it in "N".
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It doesn't have to be the correct grade, although if actually possible it would be nice.
The typical consist going up the hill is anything from a GP-9 to a GP-38, with two or three cars in tow behind it. To tackle the grades,there is a decent sized switchback partway up the line. The switchback goes back to the days of steam where they used to haul granite down the mountain.
Click This For Photo
That is the "big push" to get up to the switchback. Look at the difference in the locomotives grade, and the grade that the cars are on.
As an interesting aside, back when I was a bit younger, Green Mountain 803 was the first locomotive I got to sit in the engineers seat on. Back in eigth grade after school I used to run down to the tracks, and since I knew the crew, they'd let me hop on and go for a ride up to Bombardier. It's just not the same since they sold 803.... :(
GraniteRailoader, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, your linked photo doesn't seem to show up for me. Your coding is right, so it must be something about the URL link itself.
I'd sure be interested in seeing it, though.
Holy Smoke!! That's as bad as the grades as Cass, I think, maybe worse. I'd love to see that. Anyway, you will have a challenge if you have insufficient room for the transitions and the height you need. But it should be a heck of a project. Nice photo...thanks.
-Crandell