Peter,
Thank you for this point from John Armstrong. I have his books, and read them thoroughly back over 25 years ago. Now that you mention it, I do recall this discussion of short grades. I had already remembered his and others warnings about grades on curves which makes it tougher for engines to pull cars. After my last post last evening, I was in the train room measuring out 100" to see what I need to make a 6" rise to do some testing. I did that years ago, but it was with an HO Shay. I will set something up to test, hopefully later today, then I will report back. Again, thank you for providing this insight, I'm glad you are following along!!
