# Need some help from a Railroader

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-from-a-railroader/141329>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 8, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-from-a-railroader/141329 "2002-12-08T18:11:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Patricinus\_Scriblerus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Patricinus\_Scriblerus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patricinus_Scriblerus)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-from-a-railroader/141329/1 "2002-12-08T18:11:46Z")

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If a train is going around a curve is one track higher than the other (banked so to speak) or are they level???

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**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-help-from-a-railroader/141329/2 "2002-12-08T19:14:02Z")

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On most (low speed lines), track is not banked or superelevated, and much of the freight lines is low speed (short lines, branch lines, secondaries, industrial track etc can be really slow - some excepted track has speed limits of 10 mph or less).  
Anyway, faster mains do have superelevation - here’s a site with a little bit of info on that:

[Superelevation - (for prototype and models)](http://www.trackplanning.com/superelevation.htm)