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HighIron: How short a distance do you want to consider? If you're willing to entertain a very short distance as the "steepest," there are plenty of grades in the region of 20% -- on short spurs. Think of the grades running up to the old elevated coal trestles! Some notable steep grades of greater than one mile in length operated with rod-type adhesion engines include: 1. D&RG's Calumet Mine Branch, in central Colorado, with 2,700 foot rise in seven miles, an 8% grade, was said by A.M. Wellington (the dean of locating engineers) to be "undoubtedly the heaviest grade on any regularly operated railroad in the world." 2. B&O successfully operated 10% grades for two months over the top of Kingwood Tunnel by Benjamin F. Latrobe in 1852 (for an account by Latrobe see Railroad Gazette, Dec. 5, 1874). 3. Uintah Railway successfully operated a five-mile 7.5% ascent on Baxter Pass in northwestern Colorado until 1938, with 66-degree curves. Madison Incline was for a time the steepest main-track sustained gradient in the U.S. on a standard-gauge steam railroad (what a mess of caveats!) Because it's now a short line, one would have to go survey the short lines and see if there's one steeper. I would not be willing to award the purse to Madison until I'd canvassed the short line community. OS
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