Steep slopes VS low and long

[Head On]

As from cost side, short and steep is better, also train should get back to normal speed faster.

But i did see message that says, because there is steep slope train speed reduced to minimum..

Is that on whole route or just that section ?

[MagnusA]

At steep uphill grade the train cannot maintain full speed just as in real life. Once on the flat the train will pickup speed (as in real life).

[Head On]

Originally posted by MagnusA:

At steep uphill grade the train cannot maintain full speed just as in real life. Once on the flat the train will pickup speed (as in real life).

I did see that did gain some speed but its far from full.

Is there a way to see track slopes when they are build? Maybe its from that

[Thineboot]

Freight only: downhill steep, saves money and propels heavy trains while empty engines have no problem climbing 20% - which is the percentage you can see while laying rails.
Otherwise avoid slopes.

[Head On]

Originally posted by Thineboot:

Freight only: downhill steep, saves money and propels heavy trains while empty engines have no problem climbing 20% - which is the percentage you can see while laying rails.
Otherwise avoid slopes.

thx will keep that in mind. But no way to see what are slopes on allready build tracks ?

At least i cant see anywhere that...

[chaney]

There is no explicit grade display for built tracks, only while building.

Turn on contour lines and you can get some ideas.

If you enter the train manager, you'll see the path grades but it's on a bastard scale so they are hard to read numerically. The speed is displayed, too, after one round trip, so you can see where the trouble is easily that way.

I feel like I've seen freights slow down a lot on steep down grades. Sure gravity could make them go really fast, but would the engineer keep them slow on purpose for safety? Anyone else see this or was I hallucinating? Could be.

[MagnusA]

Originally posted by chaney:

I feel like I've seen freights slow down a lot on steep down grades. Sure gravity could make them go really fast, but would the engineer keep them slow on purpose for safety? Anyone else see this or was I hallucinating? Could be.

In real life engineers do slow down their trains downhill to keep it under control. For a heavy freight train in mountaineous terrain 20-25 mph is not uncommon.

How well RE simulates downhill speed reductions I have no idea, though...

[Thineboot]

Don't get me wrong, you won't end up with Evel Knievel as Engineer but to accelerate heavy trains in the early days takes a while and with a little help by gravity ... :)
You can see trains going faster than their max speed. Not by much but they can go faster.

As for the slopes of already built rails ... be my guest, there is a whole thread just about this ... :(

[Empty1958]

While you are building track you can see the max slope (up or down) from track point to track point. You can add a point and see the max slope on either side of it. If you build a track from A to B without any breaks it will show the max slope. 95% of the track may be flat and 5% of the track may be 7% slope, the whole track will show a slope of 7.

If you want to know the slope of built piece of track lay a piece of attached double track for the section you want the slope for and read that piece before you pay for it. And then trash, don't pay for it.

In my experience the speed gain of a train does not make up for the loss. If you have an up slope and then an identical down slope the train looses more overall. This is more apparent with weaker locomotives. I find an up slope of over 3% seems to be the turning point of hardly noticeable to oops. Sometimes you are stuck with a heavy slope. But if you can lower a section the track to just before it becomes a tunnel you can keep the speed up and not spend a fortune. If you have the money don't be afraid of tunnels and bridges.

@Thineboot has a point. If you are building a track that will carry a load in one direction and return empty try to elevate the loading station. I will try to put a rural station at the highest elevation. Sometimes I will buy a double track station to get the extra distance.

[Head On]

Originally posted by chaney:

There is no explicit grade display for built tracks, only while building.

Turn on contour lines and you can get some ideas.

If you enter the train manager, you'll see the path grades but it's on a bastard scale so they are hard to read numerically. The speed is displayed, too, after one round trip, so you can see where the trouble is easily that way.

I feel like I've seen freights slow down a lot on steep down grades. Sure gravity could make them go really fast, but would the engineer keep them slow on purpose for safety? Anyone else see this or was I hallucinating? Could be.

Contour lines helps a lot ... thx