> IRL, however, we're not going to see a rack and pinion lift a 250 wagon x 100 tonne load 2.5 kilometre long iron ore train up a short one story high incline (throw in the engine and the wagon weight that's ~ 30,000 metric tonne).
A 2.5km iron ore train? What are you talking about? A 2-8 train in Factorio is 10 wagon-lengths, and each wagon is 7 tiles = 7 meters, so a large iron train is only 70m long.
IRL - In Real Life (outside of Factorio) those are the mean statistics on the trains I've worked with.
You can see video if you look for Pilbara ore trains.
In game - short ramps lifting 30 feet are cute and look like fun in a tile based game. In real physics the inclines are much more gradual, especially for loded ore cars.
I'm aware that Australia and the US have extremely lengthy, heavy trains (the EU mostly deals in short trains, though). But I was pointing out that the visual scale of Factorio is already pretty out of whack, especially for what ought to be the largest entities (the rocket silo is also comically small if you math it out), so objecting to the absurdity of the vertical incline feels like it's closing the trainshed after the locomotive has left.
If we're seriously comparing game V. reality it's more than just the incline, light transit rail runs in the air (with a considerable amount of strengthened understory) heavy resource ore trains (long or short) just don't (aside from cannot be avoided rivers and chasms).
Although I do recognise the awesomeness of early victorian wide valley crossing bridges (which didn't come cheap, then or now) and the jaw dropping bridging a valley with a canal (water ain't light .. but at least it doesn't vibrate).
A 2.5km iron ore train? What are you talking about? A 2-8 train in Factorio is 10 wagon-lengths, and each wagon is 7 tiles = 7 meters, so a large iron train is only 70m long.