Should it be less steep?

[Santa Fe buff]

My friend's layout is at an angle to were about 90% of his engines can't pull 5 cars up the hill, plus it is a cuved incline. It appears to posbaby be an 6.0 or 6.5, or even 7.0 grade. Should I lower it? I can't make and major improvments because of the tight space.
Any help? 

[Pacific Northern]

The grade you are referring to should be for geared engines only.

[kevin2083]

3% should be the max

[Bill Baker]

What Pac NOrth and Kevin said is true.  If you have room only for a small layout, try, try, try to avoid any grades.  There is simply never enough room to make a proper inclined elevation.

Bill

[Daylight4449]

my devils loop has a long curved incline at 3/8ths of an inch a piece of 18 inch radius track.

[Pacific Northern]

my devils loop has a long curved incline at 3/8ths of an inch a piece of 18 inch radius track.

Check out the Woodland Scenics site

http://www.woodlandscenics.com/

note the recommended incline for most layouts is

[Daylight4449]

yes, what is it

[Pacific Northern]

yes, what is it

As you indicated your rise is 3/8 " per piece of track. Track is 9" in length. Your rise is 1/2" per foot of track. Therefore a 4" rise would take you 8' of track, a 2% rise takes 16'.

[japasha]

I you use a typical over-and-under set for a figure 8 with 18 inch radius, you will have a grade of about 5.2%, about the same as the Saluda grade on the Southern Railway, a very difficult piece of railroad to operate on.

22 inch radius lowers this to 4.5%; still steep but easier on the rolling stock.

[ebtnut]

Here's a shorthand for figuring grades:  1" in 24" = 4%; 1" in 36" = 3%; 1" in 48" = 2%.  It is not exact, but usable enough for most model railroad planning.  As noted, anything above 4% is pretty much geared engine territory, or usable only for very short trains. 

[Daylight4449]

Cool and, why do you think i call it "Devils Loop".

[Santa Fe buff]

Well, he is thinking on making it bigger, so I'll just expand it to make a better grade then. Thanks for all the help.