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Hi everyone,

With all the electronic equipment out there, it is now possible to get a fairly accurate reading on the speed of your trains. Knowing this, I prefer to run mine at about 25 to 30 mph. Speed doesn't do it for me. I enjoy watching the cars, especially the passenger, go around the curves and stretch out on the long 28'straight sections. I'm not in any hurry to get anywhere, so why should my trains?

How about you? Are you the hare or the tortoise?

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On the museum layout, I run prototypical speeds, which is to say around 35-45 scale mph for ordinary freight, 50-60 for reefer blocks, and 60-65 for passenger trains. I will run a fast streamliner like the Hiawatha at up to 100+ scale mph, just like the prototype. This is on a large club/museum layout with long straights and wide curves. At home I run much slower because my layout is small. Total size is 13x13 feet, so my straights are only 5-6 feet long. I seldom go over 40 or 50 scale mph, although I do have 072 curves on the outer main line. 

 

DCS allows you to set a maximum scale speed for each locomotive. I sometimes use this feature to keep me from running freight engines too fast. I have my UP 4-12-2 set for 45 scale mph, which is the speed the railroad told the engineers not to exceed (this was later increased when the engines were rebuilt). I don't bother with the speed limiter on the Hiawatha, since the prototype was known to hit 120. 

Last edited by Southwest Hiawatha

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