Maximum slope, the maximum design slope specified on the line or section when designing the railway profile. Including: (1) restricted slope. See "Limit Slope" for details. (2) Rear-force traction gradient (also called "multi-machine gradient"), that is, multiple locomotives pull a freight train whose traction quality is determined according to a limited gradient and run at a constant speed on the gradient. (3) Kinetic energy (dynamic) gradient, which is short in length but steeper than the defined gradient. Kinetic energy can be used to draw the gradient that the quality of freight trains determined by the defined gradient is passed by locomotives at a speed not lower than the calculated speed. (4) Equilibrium gradient refers to the steep limiting gradient of straight lines with different limiting gradients in upstream and downstream directions.