How fast do you run'em

Joe. We had a thread on this topic like two weeks back with a lot of replies. If you don't get many here, you might search for it. 

I didn't see that thread.  Whenever I do run anything I usually run faster than scale speed but not so fast they fly off the platform.  I hate to do switching so all my running is on the mainline.  And I always have a clear track ahead.

Rick

I run mine fast like NASCAR. Slow is boring. In Tacoma where I live there is always someone getting hit with a train. They move out coming through here.

I run usually in the 25-35 mph range. Break on curves to 20, towns at 12 and mainlines up to 60. I prefer the look and sound at lower speeds and accelerate and dcelerate slowly. 

Conventional I run differently...just slw enough so she won't fly off the curves. High Ballin. 

I like scale locos best, and 25 - 45 scale mph for all but "glamour' passenger trains like the Super Chief, etc.

I'm one of those guys that like to so trains RUN. So, prewar and postwar, run at "toy train" speed, which is at a brisk pace. Just like they were meant to RUN.

But command equiptment, especially 4 chuffs per, runs slower. I like to hear the chuffs. When they run fast, the sounds just turn into noise.

Freight: 25; Passenger 35-40. But what I really like is running a short local freight around the layout at 10-15smph with the sound lowered. It becomes a great mental test trying to figure out where the train is while you're working on the layout.

When I run at the club, which has nice big curves, I love to run my passenger trains @ 70 mph, just great fun, and lots of noise.

Depends on the effect one is trying to achieve, I suppose.  If you want them to look like toy trains, run 'em race-car fast.  If you want your layout to have the look and feel of the prototype in miniature, run them at speeds that more or less replicate that effect.

Personally, I like slow runners, and will be forever grateful for the speed control feature.

When I was little, my “layout” was an oval loop of track on a carpeted floor. I liked to set the train a-runnin’ as fast as it could go without it flying off the track. Then I would lie down on the floor with my head at the end of a straightaway with my nose as close to the track as possible without it getting bopped by the train passing by.

The feeling of seeing the locomotive approaching on the straight and then turning into the curve at the last possible instant is still etched in my memory over 50 years later.

That same locomotive (Lionel 646) is still running on my layout today and strangely enough, I like to run it (and all the others) as slow as practical without it stalling. I don’t know why.

With the Rail King Chesapeake and Ohio Allegheny no. 1604 and a combination of RealTrax O72 and O82 I can "beat 'er on the back" with 28 cars.

I prefer my trains don't reach "escape velocity."

Rusty

I usually run mine around 50-75smph. I like the look of fast steam, and it gets the freight to it's destination faster.

Must confess that when I returned to the hobby about 4 years ago I wanted to run them fast - I figured that a crack passenger train would be flying when out on the main.

As I've 'matured' in the hobby, like others posted above, I appreciate the slow operation, sounds, and 'realism' of a large steamer moving along with the illusion of a great machine pulling a long heavy consist...

Exactly!  I'm with you 100% on that score!

Allan,

   I 2nd that!

PCRR/Dave

at home with dcs IN THE 20-25 MPH RANGE.  At club running conventionally a bit faster