Running a Loaded Train On the Steepest Hill Possible in Railroads Online! 

The mused over plan with having a Heisler stationed at the Lumber Camp specifically for the Cordwood train sounds like a *perfect* time to use an engine shed. The way they'd actually be used, not as a gamey substitute for a roundhouse :D

Just thought of an experiment to do with a friend. For Context: In the UK there was a series of diesels called the Class 20. These diesels(unlike most of BR's stock) actually worked, but had a visibility problem(they were designed more like steam engines with the cab at one end: perfect visibility going backwards, but a lot of blind spots going forwards. Later in life, these diesels worked in pairs, coupled nose to nose with their trains in between them, much like how railcars are coupled back to back on passenger trains. So the idea is this: Get two gear trains(buy another Heisler or get the Climax, doesn't really matter but might work easier with two of the same engine), couple them nose to nose with you operating one, the friend operating the other, and your train in between, and see what happens.

I can't wait for someone to accidentally take the wrong turn and just nosedive off that hill unknowingly. 🤣

if you want to get even better corners, try to gradually increase the turn radius of track as it gets further away from a corner apex, that should reduce sideways accelerations even more and allow for higher speeds without derailing.

You need to make a gravity run down that without anyone in it, then with Dapper on the other end off-loading while you load up 6 other cars to send him. You could use your first Heisler to load and your second Heisler to off-load. Also, you should name your second Heisler Paul.. named after Paul Bunyan of course

Interesting idea: Get some friends to run both chord wood and iron ore to the smelter at the same time.

Hey kAN, to unload the cordwood faster you could park 3 cars permanently next to the platform and then you can unload the cars of the train onto the cars next to the platform and then unload those. I use this technique and it works really well. You should try it.

Tip for stopping on a hill in rro: turn on the sander and put the regulator to full throttle in the uphill direction. Have used this multiple times. Works

On my line, the cordwood unload track extends well past the platform over the iron ore pile, going up to be elevated a meter or two above the ground after the platform, as the iron pile grows as you deposit ore there, and if tall enough it'd foul the rails. To keep that from happening, we have to keep cordwood stocked to keep the iron from piling up too high, as the raised track only helps so much. In the meantime, it means we can just shove 8 cars over it onto the overflow, so cordwood is easier to deliver in the long run.

I enjoy the content man keep it up. Idea: Can you build rails to oil field.

I like the idea of a specific logging camp-based Heisler being called "Jim The LumberJack." I would probably nickname him "Big Brute Jim The Logging Train." I think that a caboose should be in the consist for the Heisler cordwood train at the back. It would really make it look nice and complete.

I love on the first part of the video you talk about how beautiful the track is and how smooth the track is and then you get to the top and it's a drastic 10° drop!. Super awesome run!

kan didnt record it because he wants to hide that he had hyce with his astounding tracklaying skills come in and lay that perfect track and clean foundations, something for which hyce is very famouse

Love your content I’m always checking to see if you’ve uploaded lol. I will admit the chaos side of me wanted to see you unhitch the cars and ride them down just to see what would happen lol. Keep up the great work and I can’t wait to see your next vid! Chow!

In real life if you leave the brakes on all the cars while you're going down 10%. They will literally catch fire and burn the train I live on a mountain next to a railroad trust me I'd know and then there's just one train thundering by at 98 mph with the brakes on full the brakes were absolutely on fire it was the coolest thing I've ever seen.

you need to boom it down the hill to see if you derail because i can go full speed down my railway witch is really curvy and 4% but you should see

Cross sections in real life were once common enough that every problem with them is heavily documented and is now 100% avoided in modern day railroad track laying design. In fact the issues of them are so realworld specific there may never be a Rail Sim game that can simulate the actual issues with crossovers and diamond track pieces. Which all the issues with them involve track warping.

Track crossing another track aren't that uncommon but there are alot of unique ones like one near me to go through an ally way in to a small town and to some factories from the main line the train turns off on a right switch to then make a 28 degree left turn back to then go over a 90 crossing over the main into the ally way basically in-between two warehouse

For turning the train around after the cordwood run, just use the Y. Sure, that's about 5 switch pulls, but it would still be way faster than a turntable considering how slowly that thing turns.

This is quite enjoyable content

The videos all start the same, but are all good in their own ways.

Outstanding! Well done.

You do know what what you HAVE to do next, right? Yep, gravity run! One empty car would be enough, just for the heck of it! 🙂

I think that might be the coolest section of track you have. The utility of that short 10% section combined with math of the game is great.

this is definitely the most satisfying episode of RRO you've put out to date kan. Pretty much all the other episodes have some kinda mishap in them. Nice to see a well thought out plan go off without a hitch for once.

'I don't know, what's a good lumberjack name? .......... Jim? Jim the lumberjack?' LOL the way you said Jim, 🤣 😂

LUMBERJACK JOE 😂idk I find this funny - I thought this was pretty epic, reminds me of a less mad version of the Stoos Bahn and the heisler is such an awesome loco

When he went over the edge to the 10% drop it just looked like a rollercoaster to me

I want your map :P that looks like alot of fun :D amazing job, love your videos on this game! :)

You know damn well i love railroads online... i have to watch every video you made of this game just bc i say so ahaha

Your approach from the south, from the logging camp is almost exactly the way I did mine, but the "gulch" run on my line hugs the south side cliff face. When it opens out just before the smelter, my track runs on a switch back down into the valley south of the smelter. The steepest grade I used going down to the smelter was a few 100 yards of 4%, the rest being between 2.5% and 3.25%. I use a siding and turn table on each end to put the engine at the front of the train. I have a fire wood depot at the logging camp (makes sense) and a water tower in the smelter valley (also makes geological sense). The engine is exclusive for this line and never returns to the main freight yard, although it can switch on to the line from the camp to the mill and yard if maintenance ever happens in the game.

Love these videos

really enjoying you talking numbers; I love going full geek with physics. You should check out roller-coaster physics, I'm pretty sure you could go over your engines rating with some good momentum ;)

Charging the 10% grade! Great line. Watchable video. What this game needs are cuts and variable angle diamonds.

You can always park the Heisler on that new track. I mean it's not like anything else ever needs to go from the logging camp into the valleys, or vice versa. Except if you had firewood depots in the valley, but that would be a job for exactly the same train. Also, you CAN turn it around using that wye at the logging camp. Requires backing up once, though. But that's still more convenient than the drop off procedure.

Love this series letsgo

Ideally for this run the player running the Heisler would pull 6 loaded cars to the smelter, uncouple them in an Inbound lane of your shunt yard, couple to the six empty cars sitting in the Storage lane, and immediately head back to the logging camp. When he gets to the logging camp he uncouples those empty cars in a Storage lane and couples up to the six loaded cordwood cars that are sitting in the Outbound lane and repeats the trip. That way your expensive Heisler is *always* hauling freight and not wasting time sitting at the loading dock. Of course this assumes you have two other players online, doing the shunt loading and unloading at each location :-D

Call your lumber Heisler “Bunyan” after the giant lumberjack of Minnesota, Paul Bunyan

A car will unload onto a car next to it. You can put two empty sets of 3 cordwood cars next to the cordwood unload platform, then unload onto them from the mainline passing by.

I finished watching Moonbo’s stream and as I saw this video I was happy.

If you ever do get a train just for the logging camp you should call it Paul or paul Bunyan if it fits

According to my quick Wikipedia search, the steepest narrow-gauge railroad in the world is 9%, so you've now made a line that is a world record :)

Khan the way you describe the track at the beginning reminds me of the rollercoaster track in polar express

Hey Kan you could make a timelapse of the 10+ hour builds it would be short and also satisfying to watch.

Id recommend doing a runaround siding at the logging camp for the hiesler. Very often were locomotives run backwards on logging railroads, especially with tenderless locos. Position the loco to go up or down in a particular direction and send it. When you get back, drop the stake flat at the loaders, run around them and re-water/fuel on the runaround, couple to the other end of the cars and away you go

You need a dedicated Engine for cordwood runs named "BIG JIM". If you drop cars at cordwood stop and take engine through next switch. You can back around through "Y" to the other end of train cars. Engine in front, all ready to head back up the hill. If you put a spur line straight back from cordwood long enough for 6 cars and engine, it would be a perfect storage spot for dedicated cordwood train.

Track cross overs are used and even still in use on main line railroads. Most that i am familiar with are or were where two different railroads crossed one another. One i know that is still in use is in Plant City Florida.

Well this has been a good show of how extreme you can go (aside from Hyces cluster ramp)

I like how the little stretch of 6% is pretty historically accurate; since with the change in grade and the sharp turn the metal in it would probably be a different grade just so that it can fill that gap in changing temperature or weather better.

You were saying about applying wagon brakes on steep declines. It does actually happen in the UK I am not sure for other countries but in the UK although not common now, on heritage lines you can still see AWB boards which basically means stop your train and apply your wagon brakes. I volunteer on lines with these sort of boards and it's common practise to stop when hauling wagons with no connected wagon brakes and put the brakes on slightly.

i love the content that you make KAN, even though me and other people are mor confertable with the metric system but its a good diffrent and is more of a culture of the USA (lesser know countrie that use it are libia (a small-ish country in the southern part of west africa) and myamar) at 15: 16 there are crossings and digital switches in more modern or update parts of the rail roads like in busy stations (like capital cities (like brussels, paris, bejing, washington D.C. but also capitals of provinces ,states, like brugge, antwerp (both captals of a province each) to give an example at 20:57 (paused at that frame) is it just me or isnt the rails going straight or is there a reason also KAN and others i'm sorry for pointing it out but it might help in the future for derailment at the small curve thats midway-ish when going down (besides its can be a reminder to slow down until the devs add signal signs) KAN for the oil fields and refinery conect them by the valley next to the iron works so it can be one big loop (so oil fields -> valley ->refinery -> iron works -> oil fields) its a shortcut like you did with the logging camp and smelter

22:38 You should definitely do that for one of your future videos lol

I would've gone with 8% for the whole distance of the grade instead of a varied grade which would easily allow pulling 9 empties back up.

There’s a t crossing by my house, BNSF and UP angled track crossing on the main lines, and they’re both busy lines. It’s pretty cool to watch but it can be a pain to get around town 😂

If you buy an engine just for this route, name it Paul Bunyan. (Not Paul Revere like I first said lmao) Not only is it a fitting lumberjack name, but A big part of his folk tale is that he would regularly climb mountains so steep they're vertical

Neat to see this done. However I use the small low point kinda by the sawmill to go left and down to the smelters, straight and across to the coal mine/up to the iron mine and right to go to the iron mine. Currently waiting on new track bits before I go ahead and redo my whole map. The plan is after the new bits to use the area by the sawmill as a yard/engine swap point with the Heisler staying out in the valley and the 70 for use on the flats.

Plenty of class one railroads had LOTs of diamonds, but as you said they were relegated to yards and had strict speed limits.

Name your logging Camp Heisler "Chuck" as a reference to the Woodchuck toungtwister and Chuck Norris

You could build a what's called a Siding Y. Basically you build a siding big enough for your train and an engine on either end. Then at either end of the siding instead of just curves back to the main you have switches leading to a Y with run space at the top switch for your locomotive to pull on to. You could put a sand and water tower there and then send your engine back to be ready to pull up the hill again.

Gorgeous track. If you invite all your mates to run trains at once this will be everyone's first pick.

Kan you could build a repositioning offset at the cordwood drop off section though it may not look pretty but it'll be much more efficient then a Y

Really is like that scene in the Polar Express where they go down a vertical section of track

That track was insane.

I tried making that back haul, but gave up, nice job.

I initially built my sawmill-smelter route THROUGH there... First interpretation started out of the sawmill with a 6% grade and steep curves. After hitting the ridge the line hit its steepest point at 8%.. it then snook down all the way at 6%. Some curves were bad enough combined with the grade that couplings could snap. Second iteration started from the logging camp, climbing at a steady 2-3%. Hitting the ridge, it descended at 4%, going into a side valley before turning around and running over a ridicolously high trestle built into a vertical mountainside.. safe to say the curvature still snapped some couplings, eventually resulting in a Mogul tender and a flatcar plummiting down the ravine. I abandoned the route not long after in favor of the more straight forward route available. Well it would seem you layed the foundation very near to where I did.. Not in the northern canyon, mine stuck to the canyon sides as much as possible.

Ah yes "Jim the lumberjack" or "jack the lumberjack"

Diamonds (Crossovers) were most common on mainlines, and extremely track dense industries. An example would be where the Erie Lackawanna crosses the Bessemer and Lake Erie into Greenville PA. You would have to build a huge embankment and bridge... Or just install a diamond. The problem with Diamonds, is they get worn out and need repair more often than anything else.

"Steepest hill possible"... 10% Clearly you need to come visit my railroad again mate, as, those are rookie numbers.

I know you have an attention to detail for your rails. A small trick I think is nice is that you can simply not place foundation to make track look overgrown and old. However, this obviously won't work on bridges.

A good lumberjack name would be Paul as in Paul Bunyan the giant lumberjack with the blue ox named Babe

you are the best

Man something that would make me buy the game 100% is that they take a "Derail Valley" turn to the game, not gameplay, but VR support, and you can control the loco's realistically from the inside of the cab, along with first person for VR, especially with the CO-OP, dude I'd be SOLD!

The perfect lumberjack name imo is LOGan :)

Name a heisler "Plug" because the cord need a plug to finish it off, it also plugs the cord-wood to the smelter, or the energy to the stove... It's a small pun that works amazingly or.... You can name it Jack the lumbertrain

Fun track

i suggest naming the new train tree beard, as a lord of the rings reference as well as it carries timber through one of the lines with the most trees left unharmed.

the thing is that My brother and I have already gone through that valley and it took me a week going on and off to complete the 3% downwards bridge to the smelter. currently my brother is planning a route from the iron mine to the smelter

you could make a line that connects the back curve from the logging camp a loop, so that you can turn around your train, without needing a turntable and without needing to detatch the cars.

There’s an American (and apparently Canadian) folk hero who was a lumberjack: Paul Bunyan.

Paul Bunyan! How can you not think of him when you think lumberjack. Though you will need to get him a little portent painted blue and name Babe at some point. :)

it be great if they do more variety of rail tracks, like a 3 way switch track or cross track in any angle then just 90 degrees straight or curved, and with both a combination of both cross and switch track, switching rail lines can easily take up less space then using only switches.

On my railroad, for cordwood unloading, there are 2 straight track sidings alongside the loading dock, with 6 empty cordwood cars parked there. a loaded cordwood train pulls alongside the first 3 cars, transfers the load to the empty cars, it then transfers to the next 3 parked cars and then to the loading dock.

Kan... put a switch off from the iron ore drop off point that is parallels the cord wood drop of point then you can transfer cord wood from your train to the cars parked at the point and finally to the drop off point. this sway you don't have to do a bunch of switching.

yo first 20 love the vids it also sucks that the big boy did not get added i wold have loved to see the 4-8-8-4

4:10 YOU MADMAN!

Idea: can you ride a empty cart down that 10% just to se how fast it will go :)

the reason why the Eureka couldn't is because it's for low grades and flat tracks cause of the large drive wheels. The locomotives with small drive wheels have more torque so they are more of a workhorse.

@22:40 that sounds like a science experiment waiting to happen.

Loaded Train + Steepest Hill = T&F Gordons hill accidents

@14:54 nope those were super common on main lines as well. 95% of them were main line diamonds (railroad crossing at grade). Now only 10% or less are still in service and the ones that are are usually restricted to 10mph.

Kan what you can do is put a y junction switch on the end of the logwood unloading line to connect to the other line, so you won't have to unhook those three cars. Here 17:46

I've seen a few railroads with a cross piece; look up the Iron Triangle in Fostoria, Ohio. I think they have about 9 individual crossovers

In steam locos you can actually use the reverser and a little bit of throttle as an impromptu brake on a steep grade.

Crosspieces are called Diamonds in real life and are quite common on main lines mainly because if one line was flat going north and the other was flat going west and they met it was easier to cross on a diamond than build up the grade for a bridge over. Go on google maps to any slightly rural town in Ohio and there should be a diamond.

You found the Heisler's natural habitat!

"What's a good lumber jack name?" Uhm.. Jack? Or Chuck. As in Wood chuck.

I made I 9% over the ridge by the iron mine to the coal mine. Use a heslier and climax to pull the cars.

You had to do this just because of ... Just because? Good point!

Nice video

realistically, when going uphill a 10% (if they ever actually did such a thing), railroads would likely put the engine at the back of the train to make it easier on the cars and their connecting points. While what you did isn't wrong within your line, as it makes perfect sense due to the lack of car maintenance, real rail roads would have to worry about wear and tear on couplers from pulling trains uphill at such a steep grade, which is why they would put the engine at the back for an uphill climb of steep grade