Just wondering who out there runs at scale speed. That would be like 55 mph for freight, 70 for passenger or faster for "high speed" lines. At some point I'd like to be able to run my Talgo at the proper speed so I'm just curious.
At the club I belong to we have speedometers with sensors around the layouts. On the HO we limit speeds to 45smph. On the N layout we try to run freights at 50-55 and passengers about 65-70. But if a freight and passenger train are running together speed is limited to freight speed.
For me, modelling is all about illusion. I love steam trains and the nostalgia of that era. In order to immerse myself, I don't need tons of details and accuracy, but I do need some approximations of everything about the era. A modern 18-wheeler with a 1926 NYC Hudson just won't do. Similarly, a really noisy consist with its metal wheel-sets rushing around my track at breakneck speed will see a passenger train completing a loop around my 11' X 21' layout, with 7' diameter helix, in less than 90 seconds. What's the point? If I set my CV3 for lots of inertia, which I most certainly do, I can dial up 60 mph on my throttle for a train at rest in my yard, line the turnouts, and watch the freight accelerate realistically out of the yard and get up to speed over about one full minute....still seven or eight times as fast as it would be in the real world, but my layout is that much more compressed as well. At 60 mph, a full loop takes just over two-and-a-half minutes. I find that running my Niagara with five long passenger cars and two reefers trailing it at limited speeds, in scale, is rather noisy. So, I tend to limit it to the same scale 60 mph or less. A loop lasts longer that way.
scale speeds? Yup, for the most part. We don't have any rules at the club for speed limits, But I usually keep my at a realistic pace that will also work for the layout visitors. People will lose interest in the trains really fast if you're doing the whole loop at 2MPH. Usually as long as I don't whip flash the rear end conductor and brakeman going around the high bridge on the downhill 3% grade, I call it good. At home on the other hand, my entire mainline run is only about 20 feet, and the minimum 14" curves that I have on my switching layout kinda imply that my maximum speed is going to be slow. I don't limit the engines though, I still take them to train shows and the club on occasion, and I like to be able to MU them all together, and once again, on modular setups, doing the scale 15mph crawl around the whole layout isn't going to get you new modelers in the hobby. I do run my SF Chief on rare occasions at a much higher speed, as in gone in a blur type speed on the local NMRA layout. Makes the kids smile as they try to keep up with the fp45 on the head end.
I went to a club a while ago where they use warrants which I found interesting, but the zones are so small that nothing got above 15-20 mph max. At home before we moved I was running freight at 50 and 60 mph, but I was only running 1 train and I had giant corners for my steamers so tipping wasn't ever a issue. Running the Talgo at speed was a sight, but I wouldn't want to run something like the ICE or Eurostar at operational speed since I think 125-150 mph scale would just be a blur and I doubt my layout could have handled it.
I do run at scale speeds - but I'll have to qualify that one. More to the point I run at what looks to be right, I have no idea what scale speed I'm running at any given time. So just guessing, I'd say I'm probably a little fast, but I don't worry about it. It does bug the heck out of me when I go to a club open house or train show and see grown men running their trains like they just woke up on Christmas morning! I can see running a little fast to keep the kids interested but dang....sometimes it just looks wacky.
Try to run as close to scale speeds as practical. Even bought a couple electronic speed recorders to do help with it. You would be surprised to see how off most people are with their speed guesses. And how slow 10 smph is opposed to how fast 50 smph looks. I was surprised. We try to operate in the yards or other than main track at 10-15 smph and the main tracks has one 50 foot tangent that we get short trains up to 50-60 smph, the rest of the main tracks are 25-35 smph. Running 50-70 car trains you dont want to go too much faster on these 1/2-2% grades. And yes, let the flames start but we do use Ernst gearing as well, with Athearn BB balanced motors with NWSL drives. Athearn hex drives are very good to convert, they run pretty quiet for the application. Using G scale voltages we get 55-60 smph with no problems. The Ath motors handle the extra 6-8 volts with no issues, they just run a little faster The only issues we have ever had were with some of the Chinese Athearn RTR motors came with grease and no oil on the motor bearings which resulted in the motor bearings and shafts growling after some operation. However Athearn replaced everyone of the motors no problems at all. Anyways...
We've measured a length and use a stopwatch....as said, surprising what you think is "slow". We used to film the railroad....did it every year for about 12 years. Camcorder on a flat three flats back from the loco. First one, we watched it, it was a roller coaster. So we slowed down. What looks right from the train is REALLY slow. Then, we ended up with a K-27 with 14.5:1 gearing...measured distance was 63SMPH. Go figure. Had to regear it to get the operating range down to where it would actually function in the setting. I had to remove cells from the battery pack on one...the guy zipped around the pike like a fire truck. I now have the ability to limit top speeds in the throttle, but haven't had to. I just limit battery voltage to a preset and it works well. Dave
I run at a scale speed or what I suspect to be scale speed at home and at my club. Most of the club members run at a scale speed too. We do have some youngsters though that run quite fast as if their throttles went up to run 16.
I operate my layout like the whole thing is yard limits. and since it's built for switching, I don't burn up the ballast at all. One entire spur is run even slower (as close as I can get to 10 MPH, account "bad track"). The locomotives I have that are sound equipped get a workout with bells & whistles. This tends to drag out the time spent in an operating session, and fill the hours.. On some layouts I have visited, I've run under lower speed limits (the Kansas City Terminal Ry. of Jim Senese is one) because the entire railroad is yard limits and has trains of several different railroads all over the place. One section represents the West Bottoms of Kansas City, and I find myself laying on the horn & keeping the bell ringing as I crawl thru the urban maze at 10 MPH, switching this or that shipper. On the Claremore & Southern in Claremore, OK (my erstwhile "home" club layout), I run the local jobs and switch runs slow (especially the yard drill), but operate the through freights and passenger runs a little faster. Have I ever "wiped the throttle" and run full speed? Yes, when I'm testing a locomotive by itself, just for grins & giggles. But in operation, it's all slow & steady.
I always run around scale speed, or what appears to be scale speed. It can be annoying to watch a switching maneuver completed at warp speed.
I think the best way to judge the correct speed given track conditions is from the on-board "engineer's" view. This is at 18 mph: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbF4a-Sb5y8 Compare it with the real McCoy in similar conditions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH58xv9xtv0 (I used the stopwatch/measured length of track method to determine the actual scale speed. The distance on my point-to-point layout is about 140' (2.3 scale miles; 8 minutes run time) so this speed makes it seem larger.) John
How do I judge my scale speed without an electronic speedometer or using a measured distance and timing the passage of the locomotive? I listen for the chuff-rate on my steamers. If you look at modern youtube videos of excursion trains doing clearly less than limited speeds, say chuffing up a 0.5% grade and trailing a decent tonnage, your mind should be able to fix a certain chuff rate. I listen for the chuff rate, or cadence, onmy layout. If it's a noisy blur, the decoder can't produce an accurate sound because I'm pushing it above a scale 50 mph on small drivers. If it's a deliberate and familiar sound, I am much slower, maybe 25 mph. So, while I can't necessarily pinpoint the actual scale speed in any one spot, by hearing a laboured chuff rate I know that I am running my trains at a reasonable scale speed.
an easy way to see your scale speed is to measure a scale 1/4 mile. In HO, it is 15' 2" long. In N, we are looking at 8' 3"...IF it takes your train 15 seconds to travel that distance, you are running at 60 sMPH, 1 minute is 15 sMPH....
Here's the graph that I use. It also works with different scales. John http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/...obbyist.com/files/users/Artarms/speed_4_0.gif
I do scale speed by observing how fast 40' boxcars pass. Two cars per second is approaching 60 mph. I run freight trains under 45 mph and passenger trains at 50 mph max.
When I was new to the internet and setting up my first email about 8-10 years ago my User ID was going to be 'runatscalespeeds' until a librarian suggested it was a tad on the long side. When I visit clubs I always see someone rolling way too fast and or stopping on a dime. If you get right up to a train so it looks big you can see it's moving faster than you think. From 2-6 feet away it looks slower than it is and thus tend to speed it up. I call it the watching a jet plane cruising across the sky phenomenon. It looks like it going 10 MPH until you get right next to it. Or seeing a long train traveling across the plains at 60 but it looks like its crawling ..
I use the iphone app, Model Speed, to see what speed I'm going and then I make note of my NCE throttle number. For example my 4-4-0 #151 at speed number 34 is going 25 mph which is the speed limit is on my 1915 era Zalma Branch. Check out the app.
