grade
- Thread starter Sparks
- Start date
Is that alot. I have a Mantua 0-6-0 pulling the grade with two three inch cars. It still has a lot of power left to.
Yes Sparks it is alot, but if the engines you have will pull the amount of cars you want them to up the grade and you like it that's really all that counts. In real life usually only logging or mining railroads would normally have grades that steep. Most model railroads try to stay at 4% or less for ease and reliablity of operation (2.5% is the preffered choice of a lot). The way to figure the grade is 1" in 100" is 1%, so a 1" in 50" rise is 2%. The scale doesn't matter as a grade is a grade. Hope this helps to shed some light on the matter! 
This is a spur that is going to a mine some day It will run the little six 0-6-0 with 3 3" long d&rgw hopper cars. Which I have to find the hopper cars.
Sparks - You should be OK, then, if your spur is not too long. Even in the prototype, when it comes to spurs, it's pretty much "whatever it takes to get there". Moving a few cars up a 7% spur is nothing compared to hauling 40-50 cars up a 4% mainline!
Hey Sparks, did a quick search for ya - looks like Stewart Hobbies and Walthers both make D&RGW coal hoppers.
Grade vs. angles
So a 100% grade would be straight up and down? 50% grade a 45 degree angle? 4% grade would be a 3.6 degree angle?
When I build my first railroad, it's going to have a loop in it. Just like my hot wheels set when I was a kid.
So a 100% grade would be straight up and down? 50% grade a 45 degree angle? 4% grade would be a 3.6 degree angle?
When I build my first railroad, it's going to have a loop in it. Just like my hot wheels set when I was a kid.
No gromit, a 100% grade would have a rise of 100 inches over a length of 100 inches. Don't know what the angle would be, to tired right now to figure it out maybe someone else here will.
Hhhmmm....I wonder how you'd calculate the grade on that ????
PS - a 45-degree angle is 100% (5rise/5run) . . . . . a 90-degree angle would be undefined (5rise/0run). I'd check your 3.6-degree, but that would require me doing some geometry, which it's too hot to do today (my max temp for attempting geometry is 30Celsius).
PS - a 45-degree angle is 100% (5rise/5run) . . . . . a 90-degree angle would be undefined (5rise/0run). I'd check your 3.6-degree, but that would require me doing some geometry, which it's too hot to do today (my max temp for attempting geometry is 30Celsius).
Actually, 90 degrees is an infinite grade (5 / 0 = infinity). Philosophically, that is.
I think 3.6 degrees is 2.06% (sine of 3.6, right?)
I think 3.6 degrees is 2.06% (sine of 3.6, right?)
Upper School Trigonometry
Actually we're talking Tangent here.
For reasonable grades, Tan and Sin are indistinguishable (i.e. the difference is less than my carpentry) but by 90degrees, sin is 1 but tan is undefined (a.k.a. infinity).
Actually we're talking Tangent here.
For reasonable grades, Tan and Sin are indistinguishable (i.e. the difference is less than my carpentry) but by 90degrees, sin is 1 but tan is undefined (a.k.a. infinity).