I was just looking at one of these and was wondering if anyone here had one and if they are worth the money? I want to start speed matching my locos. Thanks Jim.
I installed one of these at my club, and I have found it to be well worth it. They are accurate provided you install them correctly.
What you will find is that electrical motors get more efficient as they warm up. If you take a cold loco and run it back and forth through the timing gate, you’ll find the loco gets a little faster as time goes on. Perhaps as much as 5 mph, sometimes a little more. Then if you stop for a while, and try it again, it’s slower (until it heats back up).
So when you go to speed match locos, make sure they are all run roughly the same length of time when testing them.
You can make your own very accurate, very inexpensively (under $30) - http://arduinotronics.blogspot.com/2016/11/arduino-model-railroad-scale.html
My mains are about 450 ft long so twice around should warm them up. Thanks for the info, Jim.
Hi, Gondola
You didn’t mention what brand/style of speedometer you were thinking of—
I have the Accutrack II and I’m pretty satisfied with it.
Some time ago a forum member here was asking about the top speeds of the various EMD passenger units out there and it was fun to do “speed trials” on a few of my locomotives.
So far, I haven’t messed with too much “speed matching” activity and I see from the different methods out there that some recommend the use of this tool. I haven’t used it in this regard, I do speed matching on parallel main tracks.
It is a fun thing to play with but I wouldn’t regard it as a necessary “tool”.
Regards, Ed
Matrching 2 locos with parallel tracks is workable, but if you want to match all your locos, a speedometer of some kind is really required. With one, you can accurately match multiple speed steps, not just slow and fast.
I have the Bachrus speedometer/test stand. Very satisfied.
The only fussy part is making sure a driving wheel makes solid contact to the sensor wheel on the test stand. A major advantage is that the speedometer is on a test stand so you don’t need much space; the engine runs on rollers, not on the track.