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Balsam Mountain Grade, Balsam N.C. Balsam Mountain, home of highest railroad station east of the Rockies; average grade about 4.0%, max 4.5%. 1 of 2 grades on southern railways former Murphy branch that are +4% grade. Balsam Mountain has seen many runaways. It is still in service operated by the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad . 1 in 22 (4.5%)
Trains would leave Sparks with enough engine to manage the 0.43% grade (e.g. a 2-10-2 with a 5500-ton train) and would get helper engines at Wells; the "ruling grade" from Sparks to Ogden could be considered 0.43%. But nowadays the railroad doesn't base helper engines at Wells so trains must leave Sparks with enough power to climb the 1.4% ...
Its track is built to a 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) gauge, which is technically a narrow gauge, as it is 1 ⁄ 2 inch (13 mm) less than a 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. It is the second-steepest rack railway in the world, after the Pilatus Railway in Switzerland, [3] with an average grade of over 25% and a maximum grade of 37%. The ...
Average grade was 4.24 percent for 2.6 miles (4.2 km) and maximum was 4.9% for about 300 feet (91 m). In December 2001, Norfolk Southern took the line containing the grade out of service for economic reasons. In a contract signed August 5, 2024, Saluda Grade was sold to the Saluda Grade Trail Conversancy, with plans to convert to a rail trail. [2]
Where the line is too steep to rely on adhesion for climbing, a rack railway may be used, in which a toothed cog wheel engages with a toothed rack rail laid between the tracks. A now little used alternative to the rack and pinion railway is the Fell system , in which traction and/or braking wheel are applied to a central rail under pressure.
Extremely steep gradients require the use of cables (such as the Scenic Railway at Katoomba Scenic World, Australia, with a maximum grade of 122% (52°), claimed to be the world's steepest passenger-carrying funicular [15]) or some kind of rack railway (such as the Pilatus railway in Switzerland, with a maximum grade of 48% (26°), claimed to ...
In Missouri alone, which has the 11th most miles of track, the current estimated cost to upgrade such crossings is about $700 million, the state Department of Transportation wrote in its recent ...
A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as a train track or permanent way (often "perway" [1] in Australia or "P Way" in Britain [2] and India), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, British English) and ballast (or ...