maximum grade

[sailnyoda]

I am building an elevated track layout for my 4-6-0 Night before Christmas train set.
I want to have a 3% grade. Is this possible?

[armorsmith]

The steeper the grade, the harder the locomotive works, the less cars you can pull. Depending on which chassis you have I would not recommend more than 2 cars on a 3% grade.

[Stokerman]

My Annie, that has been modified to Battery R/C, easily pulls 8 - 10+ cars up a long 3% grade, and even around a 5+ ft radius curve on grade. I have another curve that includes a short segment of 6% grade, but is mostly 4 - 5% with the same radius and can still pull 6 - 8 cars, though it definitely slows noticeably in so doing.

[armorsmith]

Stokerman, if your chassis is a more updated chassis (gen 5 or 6) then you may well be able to do that. Being as the OP did not reference what chassis he has, I chose to respond on the side of caution. An older Gen 3 chassis without modifications will not stand up to the kind of loading your heavy trains will exert.

Although this site is dated, if the OP has an earlier chassis the information on this site will be what he needs to read. http://www.girr.org/girr/

[Stokerman]

Stokerman, if your chassis is a more updated chassis (gen 5 or 6) then you may well be able to do that. Being as the OP did not reference what chassis he has, I chose to respond on the side of caution. An older Gen 3 chassis without modifications will not stand up to the kind of loading your heavy trains will exert.

Although this site is dated, if the OP has an earlier chassis the information on this site will be what he needs to read. http://www.girr.org/girr/

You are quite correct in doing so, of course, and yet another factor that should be considered is that of car weight, as Big Hauler cars are generally much lighter than Spectrum cars, and especially AMS cars. My Annie's performance should not be considered anything like typical for the earlier chassis configurations of the Big Hauler, so I likely should not have made that post in this thread!

[sailnyoda]

thank you all for your input. Based on the info gathered, I have a 5th. generation chassis and should handle the grade.