Fast freights or slow freight

I operate all types: express (fast), merchandise (medium), mixed freight/local freight (slow), and coal (very slow).

I set the max speed on my engines equipped with MTH PS at 70MPH. The speeds of each train depends on the situation. Most freight trains run around 50MPH once assembled and stretched out, out on the mainline. I just settled on that speed and our grandson did too. He came up with 45 to 50 on his own. I think it's a good speed for watching long freights go by.

I saw, heard, and/or felt the most trains my freshman year at NC State in Raleigh. The southbound SCL left downtown and uphill through the middle of the campus (double main line) really close to Becton dorm. The year was ‘66/‘67 and most trains had five Geeps and right at 100 cars, so going up hill they were cranking out the power and still going pretty slow. 

Some weekend nights we would walk a mile or so toward town when they were going slow enough to hop on for a ride back to the dorm, where we would jump off.

I like slow freight!

I don't see very many fast freights in my real train watching so I do not run them fast on my layout.  I do run my passenger trains faster as I think that is prototypically  correct.  Fast freights look like the Lionel I ran as a boy that was as fast as it could without jumping the tracks.

Art

Since I model Penn Central, its all slooow freights for me.

Tom

TM Terry posted:

I saw, heard, and/or felt the most trains my freshman year at NC State in Raleigh. The southbound SCL left downtown and uphill through the middle of the campus (double main line) really close to Becton dorm. The year was ‘66/‘67 and most trains had five Geeps and right at 100 cars, so going up hill they were cranking out the power and still going pretty slow. 

Some weekend nights we would walk a mile or so toward town when they were going slow enough to hop on for a ride back to the dorm, where we would jump off.

I like slow freight!

In my neck of the woods.SCL had 3 to 7 geeps pulling and going around 65mph.And the slowest train was the local.2 geeps mixed freight around 15 to 25 boxcars.

I grew up watching [mostly] slow freights and riding fast Varnish.

I model switching operations, so 20smph is fast on the Plywood Empire Route.

I grew up about a mile away from the CB&Q "racetrack " 3 track main. Everything was fast, 79mph Amtrak's,  50mph commuters and 100+ car freights hustling at 40-50 mph trying to get out of the way of passenger traffic. 

With sharp (uneased) curves, no straightaway longer than 10', and two trains sharing a common track occasionally, 25 is about as fast as I want to go.

It's your layout, so run them at whatever speed makes you happy.  But for all you fast runners out there who have a plethora of affordable loco choices going all the way back to 1938, I challenge you:  Try one of those video camera flatcars, or Lionel's new camera caboose.  SEE what your layout looks like at 40 scale mph. 

"30:1 or bust!  It's the gear ratio, it always has been the gear ratio."

I run both, as my Postwar engines tend to run faster so they are my fast freights and the modern engines pulling freights are able to go slower so there you go.

My childhood train was an AF pacific that wouldn't, couldn't run fast. So, that's how I run my trains.

Slow freight for me!

In Warrenville I like to run 'em almost as fast as they can go without them coming off of the tracks.

Long live Magnetraction

TM Terry posted:

I saw, heard, and/or felt the most trains my freshman year at NC State in Raleigh.

Go Wolfpack!!!

When I came along to NC State, in the early 1980s, it was Southern freight making its way through the middle of campus.  I was in Sullivan dorm, which are where these images were taken.

My steam freights are long and slow drags. As soon as my Weaver 2-8-0 comes back, it will be on the point of a mostly kit-built freight of cars that have been converted to three rail.

JeffPo posted:

TM Terry posted:

I saw, heard, and/or felt the most trains my freshman year at NC State in Raleigh.

Go Wolfpack!!!

When I came along to NC State, in the early 1980s, it was Southern freight making its way through the middle of campus.  I was in Sullivan dorm, which are where these images were taken.

Sullivan dorm reminds me of one I my favorite college stories about top floor of Sullivan, the power lines north of the dorm, two roommates, and a long chain of beer pop tops. I lived in Bragaw dorm and the blast and flash of light were impressive. No one was badly hurt, but the blast threw the guy on the ground against the fence, knocked his roommate out in his top floor room, and straightened and blackened every one of those beer top loops. A person watching on the ground as the guy stretched the chain away from the dorm yelled, “Look out for the power lines.” The guy stretching the chain replied with now famous last words, “Don’t worry. They’re insulated.”

My layout is now a point to point switching layout so all the trains are slow freights.  No room for my passenger trains. I run those fast at my local train club. 

greg773 posted:

Slow freight for me!

The UP runs through our downtown multiple times daily.  I have never seen one run this slow.

If it's just a blur, it's too durn fast:

Rusty

Slow enough to look realistic for 1953.  I don't have a lot of straight track on my main lines.  Here's an MTH Baldwin-Westinghouse DRS6-6-15 departing from the yard with the SP Local, at a realistic speed.  I never let my freight trains exceed about 40 smph out on the main track.

Like to run them slow 

lee drennen posted:

Like to run them slow 

Me too.

Both. Mostly top out at 40 but have run up to 60 at times.

i have a 7mph yard limit. reversing through a switch i usually stay at 5mph on longer 25+ consists. The only thing that flys is the Burlington Zephyr. I will hit 110 at times with it on a 30ft straight. 

My layout is only 35'x16' and I frequently have 2 10-15 car trains running on the same route (DCS),  At same time will have a few locos powered up on other routes.  All routes are connected.  Going too fast means that eventually something will go wrong.  So I usually run <20.