Railroads Online – Guide to Grade, Mass and Tractive Effort

A simple guide on how you can calculate the grade your locomotive can pull it’s train up yourself. Avoid having to wait for online calculators to update to new locomotives and rolling stock or stat adjustments and do it yourself. Caution, this guide is encouraging you to do math.

Grade, Mass, Tractive Effort and You

Please note: all credit goes to Lord Srednuas!

The Equations

For those who just want to grab the equation, here you are. I even already transformed it for you.

Use the in-game imperial measurements for tractive effort and mass.

Give yourself some margin when putting the results to use, curves and track imperfections will have some (minor) impact.

How Much Choo to Get Up the Hill?

If you know the grade of the hill and know the mass of your load (remember to include the mass of the cars when empty) this equation will tell you the tractive effort needed to get up the hill.

You will need to add the mass of your chosen locomotive/s to the mass of your load, they don’t get up the hill for free.

How Big Can I Make This Train?

So you’ve got your locomotive/s and you’ve got your hill, but how much can you get up there in one go?

Plug and play with this equation, remember the answer will be in pounds.

For flat ground expect high numbers (millions of pounds), locomotives are really good with flat ground.

Should I Re-Lay This Line?

Determining the grade an already known train can make it up can be very useful in planning, or re-planning, routes.

Maybe you can make it up in fewer trips if the hill was just a touch more gentle. Maybe you can make that slope steeper and still make it up, I’m sure you have your reasons.

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 8085 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

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