Re: Steepest train/tram line

["Jeff B. Kurland" <kurlandj@erols.com>]

David Johnson wrote in message <366A7C0C.C49FAF33@ozemail.com.au>...
>James Robinson wrote:
>
>>  With the conversion to
>> Metric, I would have thought that the description of gradients would
>> have changed as well.  Seems to be an anomaly.  Any comments?
>
>Yeah, ours did change.  What was previously 1 foot up for 40 feet
across (1 in
>40) is now 1 metre up for 40 metres across (1 in 40).  Much simpler
system. :-)


I'm a little confused.  Does the xx of  1 in xx represent the horizontal
distance or the distance traveled (length of rail used).  In other
words, if we imagined a certain steep hill as a 3:4:5 right triangle, 4
being the horizontal distance, 3 being the vertical distance, and 5
being the distance traveled, would it be called 1 in 1.66  (3 vertical
in (5 distance/3 vertical)) or 1 in 1.33 (3 vertical in (4 horizontal/3
vertical)) ?