Yes, but....

5% will work for short switching moves but remember that the greater the change in grade the longer the vertical curve connecting the flat and angled sections.  In other words, you can't just jack the track up to 5% and expect regular locos to like it.  The pilots might/will hit the rails at the bottom and the fuel tanks on diesels will drag at the top.  Steamers might teeter-tooter and lose traction altogether.

That said, vertical curves on industrial spurs can be shorter than on mainlines.  And really steep ones might be switched using a "handle", extra cars between the engine and car(s) to be spotted so the engine is never on the grade.  However, you now have to factor the weight of the handle into what your engine can push up the grade.

Scott Chatfield

Coal distributor ramps

Do a search for "DL&W 25th street, south brooklyn terminal trainweb.com" which should bring up a link to Phil Goldsteins excellent New York terminals website. The 25th street terminal had a tall coal ramp served by a switchback trestle.  It looks pretty steep in the photos showing a 44 ton GE switching cars on it.....DaveB

More Yes, but...

Hi Carter,

have a look at how your grade calculations actually work using the following diagram (Yes, I've used it before on here).

Your grade calculator will give you a "measured grade", while the "actual grade" may be way tougher especially if you want to be level across the coal drops at your coal dealer. Have look at  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/middle-school-model-rr-vertical-curves-12198545 to get an understanding of what is happening with the wagon couplings on adjacent wagons as you come on and off the grade. 

If you are prepared to have your coal drops on the grade, this can flatten the grade considerably, because one of the vertical curves (the uphill one) goes away. 

For your ramp to the coal dealer's drops, with the locomotive always on the downhill side, and with level track across the coal drops, then if you get more than 1/2 a coupling head's height mismatch between the couplings then you are in danger of leaving wagons behind on the drops as you try to tow them away. This is far less serious a problem than a "WHOOSH" that can occur with you motive power on the uphill side of the train and a breakaway occurs.    

Calculating grades

  The correct way is to calculate from the point of intersection of the grade in and the grade out of the vertical curve( the PIVC) . The vertical curve is then centered over this point of intersection. The length of the vertical curve is chosen to acheive the rate of grade change desired.  If no vertical curve is desired the intersection of the grades is called the grade break ( GB) instead of the PIVC. In the old days we had to hand calculate the vertical curve grades using a somewhat time consuming formula,later we had survey programs in our handheld calculators that could do it in a few seconds. ....DaveB