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Running N scale trains too fast
Great article! I hadn’t really thought about realistic speed. A quick calculation shows that 25 mph in N Scale is 2.75 inches per second, or just shy of the length of a single car. That should serve as a good rule of thumb for more realistic operation.
232 MPH? That might get you the pole position/front row for next years Indy 500! Thanks for the interesting article on scale train speeds. I model N scale so I try to keep these things in mind when I run my trains.
Jeff B
Since I operate a layout in very limited space (island style, single track main line is just about 25 ft) and because I nevertheless want to run some longer trains I have come to terms with that in my early modeler days already. So I typically run an ore train consisted of 3 4-axle locos with about 25 ore cars with a scale speed of 20 mph. Even so, a full round only takes just a little about 2 minutes. A short local powered by a single loco and traveling with 35 mph will take slightly above a minute, and that’s as fast as it can go. For this reason I just can’t operate Kato locos, the new Walther’s are the best for my purpose.
Great article. Makes you think about speed in a realistic way and lists a good tool to check speed.
Thanks Model Railroader Magazine and Jim Kelly for this article. Two years ago I purchased an N scale train set because it was the only size that would fit on my coffee table. I didn’t put it up last year and actually regretted the purchase because I couldn’t keep it on the tracks. After reading this article I realize I was probably just running it way too fast. I’ll put it up this year and run much slower and see what happens. Thanks again!
Good article! I’ve run at prototypical speeds for years now and seeing others who go all out gets under my skin. My only exception is when I’m testing, troubleshooting or breaking in a new locomotive. I expect kids visiting my layout to ask ‘how fast can it go?’, but not adults. It’s a learning process.
Allan
Many model railroaders tend to operate their models too fast. This is true here in the UK where trains (especially passenger ones) travel at a higher speed than in North America, and it is also true in Canada where I lived for more than 30 years. Prototypical speeds do seem slow to the operator at first but one soon gets used to them, and then they seem right.
Fortunately for me, when my 3 year old nephew was operating my layout he slowed the trains down to less than prototypical speed to watch the rods etc. moving! That’s my boy!
I wrote an article in the NMRA Scale Rails Magazine (July 2010 issue) on estimating model train speeds. It got dissed by readers in the next issue as being too complicated. What they didn’t get is that their “simpler” methods were only for HO scale, and my article attempted to set down the formulas for any scale. In fact, my article arrived at the same “simpler” formulas for HO scale. One reader even commented that dividing was too hard. I suspect that the readers who commented have trouble using DCC as well. Your article is great, Jim, I’d be interested in your opinion of my “complicated” article.
The building I work in is next to a UP line and we’re at one end of a 5 mph curve (old line that literally runs through residential areas,) which makes the trains seem to crawl around the curve. That’s as real as it gets. We should have equipment that can do that on the layout.