Real railroads tried to avoid grades like the plague, and where they had steep grades they used helpers. At AGHR, we designed the mainline grade at 1.4% and the upper branch line to 2%. It allows for running long trains without straining the locomotives, especially with NMRA-weighted rolling stock.
On this design I'm refining for my garage, the grade on the mainline is 1.6%. The branch into town is 2.2%