Grade & Elevation Calculator
Description
A railroad grade is a rise-over-run percentage: how much a track climbs vertically for a given horizontal distance. A 2% grade climbs 2 units for every 100 units it runs. This calculator works in whichever direction you need — give it a rise and run to find the grade, or give it a target grade along with either the rise or run you already know to find the other.
It also reports the track length needed to climb that grade — which is always a little longer than the horizontal run, since the track itself travels along the slope, not straight across. That's the number to use when figuring how much benchwork or flex track a grade actually needs.
Sources
- Percent grade is the standard civil-engineering rise/run definition (grade % = rise ÷ run × 100), not a model-railroad-specific standard — this calculator implements that definition directly. Track/slope length is the hypotenuse of the rise/run right triangle (the Pythagorean theorem).
Disclaimer: this calculator reports pure geometry, not a recommended maximum grade. Most modelers keep grades to roughly 2–4% depending on their locomotives' pulling power and curve radii — check your own equipment before committing to a grade.