Just got back from my annual CZ trip to the Golden Gate and came back with a question about the grade west of Denver…
If I recall aright, the ruling grade is 2+%… Where, exactly, does that start? I’m afraid that, with the curves slowing us down, I didn’t notice when things got steeper.
PS-On the return leg. we managed to stay OT all through the mountains and even got to Denver EARLY. Very unusual. Then, OT all through Colorado & Nebraska, only to get stabbed for about an hour just shy of Corning, I think it was (I was napping and didn’t really hear the announcement)-where, they said, the double track began that would’ve saved us from going in the hole. Of course, we never made it up and I missed my Hiawatha by 15 minutes. At least one of the few Amtrak related things Wisconsin does right is fund more than one, so I just got home a few hours later-and got to watch trains in Chicago for a couple of hours.
I can’t speak to where the grade starts, but having been on another known 2% grade, I can tell you that it’s not all that noticable (at least to the rider - the engineer certainly knows it’s there). Not a lot different from those times you thought you were driving on a level road only to discover it was really an upgrade and you were having to put your foot into it just to maintain speed.
The grade stiffens to 2.0% compensated at MP 13.4, just west of the west switch of Leyden. But it’s hard to see because the grade has been as steep as 1.7% all the way from MP 7.3, Pierce Street in Arvada. You can see this by looking eastward from the grade crossing at Old Wadsworth Boulevard.