3% grade with steam engine pilots?

It all depends on the approach to the grade, with any engine. 3% is not a problem, other than heavy trains will chew up traction tires on that grade. Start the grade with a nice gradual approach and nothing will bottom out causing a short.

I usually don't have an issue with shorting on approach of a steep grade.  It's the top that has always given me issues with the front coming off of the track and shorting when it comes back down.  So make sure you smooth out both ends!

I have a steep incline on my layout and some steam locos short out when the cow catcher starts the incline.  I have fixed this issue by putting a small piece of black tape at the point of contact under the cow catcher.  It is not seen and solves the problem and would work at the bottom or top of the incline.

 

Paul Edgar

If you use an eased vertical curve, it will work fine.

 

 

Use another eased vertical curve at the top and engines will run over that OK, too.

 

And it is not a "cow catcher." It is a "pilot."

Rich, don't start another semantic dispute.  I suspect it was designed in 19th century to sweep logs and animals off the track to reduce derailing.  Hence the popular name.

Rich,

The fellow didn't mean it.

Really, Rich, he didn't mean it.

Rich, what are you doing?

Rich, is that a shotgun?

Um, gotta go . . .

Just for kicks, I googled cowcatcher and came up with a page from The Milwaukee Journal for July 31, 1921, which mentioned that David Matthew was chief machinist for the Utica & Schenectady RR and invented this device in 1836 because a collision with a bull in the Mohawk Valley would derail a light loco.  Googling Mr. Matthew further, he also is said to have invented the snowplow,the locomotive cab, a spark arrester, handcar propulsion systems, and the means of forcing a wheel upon an axle. 

 

Someone interested in railroad history and development might be interested in pursuing him further.

 

The Journal cite is

https://news.google.com/newspa...31,2177206&hl=en

 

The google search also turned up something of which I was not aware, that "In addition to the pilot, small metal bars called life-guards, rail guards or (UK) guard irons are provided immediately in front of the wheels.  They knock away smaller obstacles lying directly on the running surface of the railhead."  From

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_%28locomotive%29

 

Now doing some ruminating (pun intended), Mr. Matthew obviously did not intend that his new pilot would catch and hod cattle, but rather throw it to one side.  So one could say that he conceived the idea of a bull slinger. 

this grade is 3 percent and I can run a group of 7 Atlas CZ passenger cars up and down no problem... key is avoid the sharp approach...

 

 

 

The biggest problem on my 2.5% grade is the top. My Atlas CZ cars with their low bottoms  scraped when I first got them so I had to make that more gradual.

Gentle transitions make for trouble-free railroad grades. Also, I notice our webmaster has a new device for settling the 'pilot' question............

 

I have a 3.5% grade on my layout and with gradual transitions at the top and bottom there are no issues.  I use Gargraves flex track and one way to ensure gradual transitions is to make the transition occur along the length of a 37" piece of flex. 

 

When I originally laid my track I didn't notice that I had a joint between two pieces of flex near the middle of the transition at the top of the grade.  Steam locomotives with long wheelbases (think x-10-x wheel arrangements) would do a teeter totter at the top of the grade since the transition was not as smooth as it should have been.  I cut the old track out with a Dremel tool, relaid the transition with a single piece of flex, and all is well.

Firewood, that picture is of an invention to keep cars from running over pedestrians.  A people mover or crosswalk sweeper, if you will.