Rob,
I thought those steam engines didn’t have speedometers? Could be why you can’t see them [;)], I do remember reading in trains mag once that they didn’t, though I could be just full of hot air…
Rob,
I thought those steam engines didn’t have speedometers? Could be why you can’t see them [;)], I do remember reading in trains mag once that they didn’t, though I could be just full of hot air…
Like trainluver1 said, I run my engines slow also, and just kind of guess at the speed.
Tracklayer
P.S. Hey trainluver1, where’ve you been lately ?.
Basically same here. I will run the proper speed to what looks good to me on the layout. I’m not in any race to finish running-the enjoyment is in watching your trains. I adjust speed accordingly. With a coal drag of say 3 SD50s and 40 loaded hoppers, I will run no more than 1/3 to 1/2 throttle (30-45 mph). A fast freight I’ll run 1/2-3/4(45-60mph). Passenger even with F or E units now you can fly if you want but I’ll keep them about 80-90mph.
Each loco and various lashup will have different power demands. Learning to judge the speeds is all you need.
Bob K.
What one of my guys did was cool… He went to Target and purchased an electronic bike speedometer for about $10 bucks. It is about 1 inch square. Mounted it on a flatcar and put a small micro switch above the axel with a bumper on the axel… Few adjustments and we now have a constant speed readout and also it calculates the distance. We just convert it to HO and we have scale miles or it reads feet somehow
WP Steve
Ouch! Thinking about math conversions make my head hurt. [:I]
You have to understand that some people can’t enjoy anything unless it’s real complicated.
Each to their own ([^])…
Tracklayer
The longer the length of the measuring “zone” the more accurate the measurement will be. I was lucky in that my mainline loop came out to be almost exactly 1 kilometer, so a train that takes 60 seconds to go once around the loop means it’s going 60 kph…120 seconds means it’s going 30 kph etc. From there pretty easy to work out timings in 5 second increments, and then convert (if you wish) to MPH.
For N scale…
Take the number of inches the train travels in 5 seconds, multiply x 1.818 and you have your scale MPH speed.
For example…
If your train travels 33 inches in 5 seconds, your scale mph is 33 x 1.818 = 60 mph.
[^]
Looks like we have done as well with “no child left behind” as we do with disaster relief in Louisiana, or finding weapons in Iraq.
Well at least we have Karl Rove is outing CIA agents, all must be right inside the beltway!
Will
QUOTE: Originally posted by oleirish
[:)]I just eye ball it[;)]
OLE’IRISH
Remember TIME IS NOT CONSTANT… (see The Doctor’s “Time and Relative Dimensions in Space”…) when you are running for a train (wouldn’t dare suggest running for a city bus) time rushes by as it pulls out… the wait for the next one crawls slower than a mollusc…
Then again Einstein or somebody said that the universe is warped…
Maybe we should factor that into our equations?
Ask the engineer in the tiny cab!
-Ed
Similar to wpsteve I have a speedometer car… just I was able to buy it ready to run (a fleischmann Germany product) and did not have to build it myself. It could probably be fitted to work with kadee coupling too.
This speedometer car gives on the display directly the actual HO scale speed (and also the average speed + distance as most bike speedometers do).
Most interesting was to find out that normally we tend drive the trains far too fast compared to the scale speed.
sebastiano.
It turned out my mainline ‘loop’ came out to be just a tiny bit under 1 km. around, so it was pretty easy to calculate speed based on how long it took to go one time around the loop…60 seconds = 60 KPH = 37 MPH. It makes a difference, knowing how fast you’re actually going. A big drivered steam engine might look like it’s going slow when it’s really going 45 MPH, and a small drivered engine can look like it’s going great guns when it get up to 25 MPH !!
BTW, easiest way to measure your mainline (or a portion) is to set up several cars to get as close as possible to a train of say 3 ft., then just keep pushing it ahead one train length and count how many train lengths around your mainline is, then multiply that by 3’. Easier then using pi to calculate the circumference of your curves !!
In Ho, #6 switches are about 12" long. A good reference for checking speed.
Here a very simple way…go to www.gatewaynmra/designops.htm realistic operation, Phase 1.
It gives you a chart for N, HO and O.
As a follow-on to what John Colley said on page 1 of the thread:
Most people can learn (with only a little practice) to estimate 5 seconds. Then if you are using 40ft cars in HO, the number of cars passing a tree, structure, switchstand, or other point in 5 seconds x 6 = scale miles per hour. If one car takes 5 seconds to go past the point, that is 6 smph - a good switching speed. How many of us actually go that slow?
Similarly,
2 cars in 5 sec = 12 smph
3 cars = 18 smph - a prototype pace for a coal drag over mountains
5 cars = 30 smph
7 cars = 42 smph - a good pace for a normal freight train on level track
5 80ft+ passenger cars in 5 sec = 60 smph - about as fast as a passenger train normally went in transition era
yours in OF&S
Fred W
QUOTE: Originally posted by Error
I hit a function key and my QSI speaks to me in a voice…
Is THAT where that voice comes from?! And here I thought it was one of those voices in my head that speaks up on occaision…[:0][}:)]
search on yahoo they have it i did a science fair project on it.
Good grief !
In HO, one foot per second equals approximately 60MPH. Close enuf for me. Therefore one foot 2 seconds equals 30, yada, yada…
Wow, somebody has a HO layout 1 km long! Thats 1000 meters or approx 3250 feet.