It appears to me that the grades when laying track are incorrect by a factor of 3.28084. That number happens to be how many feet are in a meter. It appears they are taking the horizontal distance and dividing by 3.28084 and then dividing that by the difference in elevation between spline points. An easy way to test this is to lay a section of track 100' long. Set the elevations at each end of the track so they are exactly 1.00 feet different. example 0.00 at one end and 1.00 at the other and then check to see what the grade is on this section of track. It should be a 1.00% grade but it reads 3.30% grade.