Red Marble grade doesn't make any sense.

[trumpetplayer105]

My complaint is in the title. The Red Marble grade coming out of Nantahala is absolutely ridiculous and doesn't make any sense. Maybe i'm just ignorant to the actual route the devs were trying to model this game after, but a quick google search shows that the current steepest grade in the US is only 3.3%. To have a 3.9 to 4.5% grade on a small branch line is just mind boggling. I lashed up 2 Berkshires, a decapod, and the smaller pacific and it still isn't enough power to pull just under 3 tons up the grade.

[Phoneend]

Saluda Grade Grade is 4.7 %, Red Marble grade (irl) 4.4 to 4.8 % and the Madison incline is around 5.89 %, so yes the grade is "ridiculous" but real grade,

[germanicus12]

You are looking at Class 1 main line, which doesn't go much steeper than 3.3-3.5 for the most part.

Branch lines like the Murphy Branch which this game is based on deal with much steeper lines, I think the steepest grade in the US might be 5.9% but don't quote me on that.

Taken from google:

"Red Marble Grade, Topton, North Carolina.
A 2015 survey lists the 3.5 mile stretch between MP 87 and MP 90.5 at a 4% average grade and says there are isolated stretches approaching 7%. When originally built the ruling grade was 4.2% as listed by southern railway. But due to the fills settling it has drastically changed.[14] This segment of track has always been worked by adhesion. This line is owned by Great Smoky Mountains Railroad and in 2019 is out of service."

[Phoneend]

also i just pulled 1320 Tons up the grade that 10 mph with two GP9's, and 583 tons with two P43's that 17 mph, its possible just need to pay attention to what the loco and move that the grade of the track

[coenvijge]

It seems to me that the devs have created the line based on the real situation (in the past). The line is as it is.

No offence, but if you want to change the grades, you are asking 'strange' things. I've seen that also on YouTubes from 'Railroads Online'. Running huge 'mainline trains' while the game is supposed to create a small network with some logging camps, mines and farms. If you try to do that it's okay. But don't ask the devs to change their game.

(3 tons ?)

______________

[935turbo]

The "Red Marble" is currently the steepest grade East of the Mississippi River as claimed by The Great Smoky Mountain Scenic Railway. I ran 988 tons of pulpwood west up the grade with a single GP9 at 11.1 mph.

[trumpetplayer105]

I'm not expecting the devs to change anything, I just thought the grade seemed unrealistic. Plus my stubbornness wasn't ok with breaking up my train of interchange cars for Andrew's and I wanted to run it all at once. Guess I'll have to rethink my strategy anytime I have to travel up the grade.

[RayRR]

When designing a Model Railroad one train of thought is to base it on an actual railroad. In this case the Murphy Branch. This eliminates a lot of decisions of track placement, towns, industries, buildings, signals, operating practices, etc. The real railroad already made all these decisions for you and you just copy. Your only real decision is one of compression. I have limited space, I have already limited the "map" I am modeling, now what do I have space for to physically include in the layout.

Wanting to run Big Boy's and Allegheny's and similar requests on this branch or on other time period based games drives me nuts too. I hope the devs stick to their mission statement.

[RayRR]

@trumpetplayer, I would have tried the same thing, but perhaps come to terms with the breaking up of the train a bit sooner. I have doubled the hill in other games, and now knowing about that grade I will double that one also after testing the limits. Looking forward to trying out two engines MU'd on that hill.

I prefer to think of it as perseverance and not stubbornness . :)

[NeoPyro]

3 tons? Something ain't right.

I routinely pull pulpwood trains weighing upwards of 3000 tons with 4 GP9's at an average of 5 mph with no issues.

[Guernica]

He obviously meant 3000 tons.... even if he didn't know it.

[thebear05]

Originally posted by coenvijge:

It seems to me that the devs have created the line based on the real situation (in the past). The line is as it is.

No offence, but if you want to change the grades, you are asking 'strange' things. I've seen that also on YouTubes from 'Railroads Online'. Running huge 'mainline trains' while the game is supposed to create a small network with some logging camps, mines and farms. If you try to do that it's okay. But don't ask the devs to change their game.

(3 tons ?)

______:loco::carriage::carriage::carriage:________

I too watched certain members of the RO community basically wreck the game over time by demanding changes to the game that were not warranted except for their own self aggrandisement. If the consist is too heavy, or to long split it. As was done in normal practice. There was on length of track in the UK (I believe 1 in 37.7) and had a specially built helper (0-10-0) rostered there for this same reason (see the Lickey Banker). This was eventually replaced with a 92 class (2-10-0) when they became available.

[trumpetplayer105]

Yes I meant 3000 tons. I made this post originally around 2 in thr morning lol.

[Nikoli Voldkif]

Originally posted by RayRR:

Wanting to run Big Boy's and Allegheny's and similar requests on this branch or on other time period based games drives me nuts too. I hope the devs stick to their mission statement.

agreed, while I would love to see those larger engines, I think that it would be best for them to be left to a new map DLC/railroader 2 that takes place on a more spread out midwest map or another more main line track.

[DorniNerd]

So the Murphy Branch and the Red Marble Grade are both real things... We did a lot of work to match their route, grades, etc etc. We took some liberties here and there, like yards and interchanges, etc... Otherwise it is pretty close.

Southern, the railroad who owned it then, would use 2-5 2-8-0s, usually K1s on their trains coming from Bryson. Another helper/local switcher, was located at Andrews.

[railbaron1]

Originally posted by 935turbo:

The "Red Marble" is currently the steepest grade East of the Mississippi River as claimed by The Great Smoky Mountain Scenic Railway. I ran 988 tons of pulpwood west up the grade with a single GP9 at 11.1 mph.

I have the EMD F7 mods, 3 of them (1 A unit and 2 B units) 56,500 lbs tractive effort each, Struggled to do 13 heading east and started sliding back stopped at Topton pulling 4 Osgood-Bradleys and A Pullman Parlor.