What are the best RR grades to watch a train climb. Must be from a place easy to view the train without trespassing.
Many places in the Canadian Rockies. Watching those babies grind up towards the continental divide on “high” sends a shiver up your spine and a massage through your feet. Canyon hot springs/camp ground has the CP main line running right through it. Relaxing in the recliner outside the trailer with a beer and a guitar watching train after train roll by… heaven.[C):-)]
Brent
Horse Shoe Curve, Altoona, PA. Public park, amenities, lots of traffic of different kinds, different directions of sunlight, helpers, etc. See:
http://www.railroadcity.com/hc/index.php
And/ or enter “Horse Shoe Curve” in a search engine (why do they use that word ?) such as Google.
- PDN.
Cassandra - same line but on the other (west) side of the mountain from Horseshoe curve - more of a railfan hangout, but it has a pedestrian overbridge, benches and grassy space for picnicing. I can still hear the noise bouncing off the valley sides from four SD40 helpers in run 8, pushing on the rear of an endless coal train…[:)]
On the other side of the continent, Tehachapi would be hard to beat…
Tony
Have to agree with Cassandra here, Tehachapi is the place I’d go to if I could only go to one place once (I’ve been there, it is worth the trip!). Cajon Pass, now with 4 tracks from top to bottom is not to shabby either.
John
Have to agree with several others of selecting Horseshoe Curve to witness the upward movement of various consists.
Safe place to do so…
Vision from downside of horseshoe up and around and on up the high side of the curve. Track grade is so obvious…Gains about 92’ across the two ends of the horseshoe.
Beautiful mountain scenery adds to the ambience…and loud speaker broadcasts chatter from towers, DP and engine crews…
Sights and sounds of decending trains interesting too with flanges squealing, brake {sometimes}, smoking…dynamic brakes whining and so on…it simply is an interesting place for an interested rail fan…I’ve seen trains just about stall on the upward movement and listened to the crew talk about their situation, etc,All very interesting.
An interesting place to ride {on the train}, down / up around too…and I’ve done that when it was still steam powered too…many years ago.
Agree with the big names…Horseshoe Curve or over on the West Slope…neaby Sandpatch is always a railfan’s delight still…Cajon and Tehachapi and Sherman Hill and the DRGW up out of Utah into Colorado are western delights. Off the beaten path but still worth watching: Belden Hill on either side up from Binghamton, NY or up from Afton; or hop further east and enjoy the conquoring of Richmondville HIll; D&H on the former DL&W west (north) out of Scranton and the Delaware Lackawanna still east out of Scranton. Catch something either way over Keating Summit and you can have a fun railfan hour or two…twist through the Berkshires and see how CSX continues the battle started by the B&A over a century ago. Any place there is a hill with a track going up it, has got to be a good show!
My favorite spot is Five Row. This spot is outside of Spencer, North Carolina and I think the trains climb up a 2.8% grade. I would prefer this spot over the wye in Salisbury.
Video by Clint Renegar.
http://www.rail-videos.net/video/view.php?id=5505
Video by me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyxZSmnwrHg&feature=channel_page
Kevin
Good videos…and grade is very visible.
My favorite spots are just off Interstate 80 in Califonia in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Norden at the top of the mountain and Colfax at 2500 feet on the western side and Truckee on the eastern side at 6000 feet.
Hi Batman - since you’re a midwesterner like me I’ll chime in with a local grade. Byron Hill, south of Fond du Lac, WI. The old Soo Line, climbed out of the Lake Winnebago Basin up over a ridge heading toward Chicago. It was about a 6 mile climb of about a steady 1% grade. WC double tracked it. There are several public crossing and an overpass that is wide enough to stand on and watch trains pass under near the crest. I had a chance to see WC SD-45’s grinding up that hill in the old single track days, w/ another train in Byron siding at the top, waiting to roll down w/ dynamics engaged there. Unfortunately the Soo and WC are gone and its just some Canadian RR that runs it now… but the hill is still there.
Are you sure that the grade is only 1%? It sure seems much steeper to me. Although the amount and severity of those curves make for quite a bit of flange friction, IIRC, 2 units could only get about 8000 tons over the hill.
I ask this because the grade of West Allis hill in Milwaukee is barely 1% at it’s steepest, and even that is only a section of about 1/2 mile; the rest of the grade is around .8%. I could get a 13000 ton coal train up the hill (on a good, warm, dry day) with only 2 SD40-2’s (granted I’d only be going about 2mph at the top, and I’d be melting the traction motors).
This used to be my favorite grade when I was growing up as it was only a bicycle ride from my home. It’s not that far from where you live, Boyd.
Well, don’t go bothering to go to this place. When the Nickel Plate Road still existed, there was a mighty stiff hill to climb in Cauga IN. Just east of where the NKP crossed the present CSX. I would give anything to see a 2-8-4 Berkshire climb this hill. But I think it would be a great thing to see a train climb up the Sand Patch hill in PA.
That’s a good one too Justin…It climbs the same basic mountain range that Horseshoe does, but quite a few miles south…Horseshoe avg. is roughly 1.8% and I believe Sand Patch is just a bit steeper at places. Tunnels too.
In my opinion, the big three are Horseshoe Curve (OK, the other side, too!), Cajon, and Tehachapi. However, on those three I’ve never seen a train close to being “on its knees”–they all seem to make it up the hill with no problem (but plenty of sound!).
So, here are three lesser-known grades where the trains (some of them) have been observed struggling a bit more. They may be tiny compared to others mentioned here, but they left an impression on me:
–New Richmond Hill, Michigan. On the C&O main line between South Haven and Holland. The hill starts immediately after the bridge over the Kalamazoo River, and the trains hit the grade doing about 40. But we saw a train down in the valley, and had to drive about five miles to make it to the top (the train had about two), and this train was barely moving when the engines got to East Saugatuck. Speed picked back up as the rest of the train passed by. Amtrak operated up this hill on the way to Grand Rapids, and they run unit coal trains up the hill en route to West Olive. That ought to be a show!
–The Proviso hump. Not a “pimple” like the more modern classification yards. Pulling a cut back should not be a problem, but sometimes brakes get left on the cars, they get nothing but loads on the slope, or other calamities befall them, and they have to either make a cut, doublehead them, or try again (or just knock off the brakes!).
–Bald Knob, West Virginia. Definitely the steepest of the grades, and possibly the longest. The year our family visited Cass Scenic Railway on their Railfan Weekend, they had two Shays and a Heisler pulling the train up to the top. They unloaded us all, then backed down for a photo climb. The sight and sound of those three locomotives struggling to make it back up there was amazing.
I’ve been over other grades–Donner, the Front Range, Alleghany (yes, I spelled it right!), the Blue Ridge, and Sand Patch–but none of them did if for me the way these did. And these I have had the benefit of
Carl…It happens. On one of our last trips to Horseshoe we experienced one very much “on it’s knees”…Could hear the crew conversing about it, etc…I happened to be videoing it and had my scanner on and I believe the voices are on the tape. Haven’t watched it for some years now…{in fact, don’t even have a VCR recorder / player set up now}.
The involved train was really down to a crawl…and I mean just a fast walking speed…but they eventually did make it.
Dear Friends,
Tyrone, PA on the Pennsy mainline has several nice areas on route 453, I believe. You just pull off the road and set up shop. Too, at Coburn east of Altoona and before the Curve, you can sit next to the grade and see the freighters coming and going uphill and down. I have walked the roadbed looking for old spikes, etc. It can be quite dangerous if one is not paying attention, as the trains can appear out of nowhere. On the Pittsburgh side of the Horseshoe Curve are the Gallitzin tunnels, quite impressive. Other places too numerous to mention. The locals know them all. Google Earth has nice satellite pics of all this.
Open invite: any of you fine folk are welcome to contact me if you are in town at jsmvmdataolperiodcom. I will personally take you around or put you in touch with very knowledgeable people.
Best Wishes,
Jack Majcher, Altoona, PA
The west slope of Beaumont hill (east of the West Colton yard) is pretty impressive,too.The trains really get down and dirty on this grade.This is fairly close to Cajon,so both can be visited on one trip.
I like Rutledge Iowa ( going downa roller coaster is just a tad steeper lol) You can view it at the top in Rutledge, there is also a bridge going over it about midway, and then at the bottom in Ottumwa.In Ottumwa you can watch BNSF run by while waiting for the IC&E trains.
Albia Hill on the BNSF also Ottumwa HIll . Have to get a county road map to get in close to thses but it is possible.Then Kirkwood in Illinois.Most of the problems with these are there is no easy access points.
Calmar up in Northern Iowa is a good one as well.