Woodys Eastern Red Marble 1.5 Percent Express Grade

After completing & publishing my Original Eastern & Western 1. 5% Routes over Red Marble, i quickly realised while using them in a proper company game that the original alignments had severe limitations in their practicality. The central problem with them was all the sharp curves which limited the maximum speed of trains travelling in either direction to 25 Mph. Additionally the sharp curves severely hampered larger trains as a result of friction losses from all the wheels squeezing their way around the tight curves. Given that the whole purpose of a 1. 5% alignment is to enable longer, heavier trains to get over Red Marble, having curves that actively punish players for running larger trains made no sense. In response I have overhauled both of my original grades to achieve a 35Mph+ route over both sides of Red Marble.

The result for this half of Red Marble is a 13 mile right-of-way that navigates 23 Bridges, 4 Viaducts, & 23 Tunnels to reach Topton from Nantahala. The route maintains an average grade of 1. 5% for the entire duration with a peak gradient of 1. 6% on a couple curves. The grade lowers to 1. 0% while going through the big loop & the horseshoe tunnels to lessen the strain on longer trains. The maximum curvature has been halved from 18-degrees to-10 degrees & consequently the maximum safe speed limit on the entire route has increased from 25 to 40 Mph**. Additionally, when travelling at or below 35 Mph energy losses to friction on curves is nearly non-existent. In testing a loaded 100 car coal train (10,000 Tons) going uphill at 35Mph, the train only lost 1 Mph to friction going through the tightest curves. Lastly there is a 2300 foot siding 1/3 of the way up the hill just below the big loop to enable trains to pass each other. This mod also adjusts the position of the central switch in Nantahala to enable trains to traverse to & from the vanilla mainline track at 40 Mph.

Because of this route’s much shallower gradient compared to the vanilla Red Marble Grade, larger locomotives such as the B-65 & F-71 are capable of hauling decent tonnage over the line solo. In testing, the vanilla F-71 was capable of hauling 30, 50ft Steel Boxcars (1152 Tons combined W/Loco & Tender) at a steady 32mph. Larger Modded Steam Locomotives such as RCrockin's Chesapeake and Ohio T1 & Eilelwen's Great Northern M-2 (2-6-8-0) are even more capable. Their 106K & 107K TE can handle 2,000 tons respectively. However, these still don't quite compare to Raiders & Crushers Metal Monster's, the RLW RMWF-1/2 JARL's & DMIR M-3 Yellowstone's with the Great Jarl & Yellowstone's 140K TE being able to haul 3,000 tons over the grade single-handedly.

As for Diesels, CoachFreeman's EMD SD70ACE, GE AC6000CW, & GE C44-9W are all excellent heavy haulers.

The following calculation is a rough guideline to determine what a locomotive can reasonably handle by itself: