Question about train speed?

44 feet in 25 seconds is 1.2 mph

 

(44 / 25) * 60 * 60 / 5280 = 1.2 mph

57.6 sMPH.

Big difference between MPH and scale-MPH.  It would be a 1:48 difference.

 

 

 

It's easy.  A mile per hour is 5280 feet/3600 second or 1.467 feet/second.

 

Your train went 44 feet/25 second or 1.76 feet/second.  If you divide this number by 1.467 you get 1.19 real miles per hour.  Since O scale is 1/48 of full scale, multiply 1.19 by 48 gives you 57.2 scale miles per hour (smph).

 

Another way to look at is to divide a mile (5280 feet) by 48 which gives you 110 feet.  That is the length of a scale mile.  so you went

 

    ((44 feet)/(110 ft/scale mile))

-------------------------------------------  =  57.6 smph

((25 seconds)/3600 seconds/hour))

 

Of course this leads into a discussion of a "fast clock".  We'll leave this for later.

 

Jan

Lionel had in their Facebook page about how to measure mph/kph for O & S gauge trains using the 3' measurement and a stop watch. You may have to troll it to find it. I believe it was from October.

Thanks to all who answered! Jan was spot on to what we are looking for the project! 5th grade science project with the lads trains front and center. He gets to bring a engine,transformer and some track to school!

Another way to do it that can be executed on any section of the layout with a definite start point is the following formula:

 

Inches traveled in 2.5 seconds equal scale MPH in O

(a number of other figures were published for other scales but I don't recall them off the bat)

 

---PCJ

Here's another comment.  The greater the distance traveled the more accurate the calculations.  So let the engine do multiple laps.  Then take the total distance and divide it by the time.

 

Jan

Measure 11 feet on your track, time how many seconds it takes your train to travel the 11 feet, then use this chart:

 

SCALE SPEED TABLE
Time to Travel		O Gauge
11 Feet		SCALE
(in seconds)		MPH
4		90.0
4.5		80.0
5		72.0
5.5		65.5
6		60.0
6.5		55.4
7		51.4
7.5		48.0
8		45.0
8.5		42.4
9		40.0
9.5		37.9
10		36.0
11		32.7
12		30.0
13		27.7
14		25.7
15		24.0
16		22.5
17		21.2
18		20.0
19		18.9
20		18.0
21		17.1
22		16.4
23		15.7
24		15.0
25		14.4
26		13.8
27		13.3
28		12.9
29		12.4
30		12.0
35		10.3
40		9.0
45		8.0
50		7.2
55		6.5
60		6.0

 

Sorry, I don't know how to make an Excel file reproduce better in this forum.

.....

Dennis

Thanks again to all , i do like the last one by Dennis, will save the info. The lads project is done. will try to get a pic from the science fair he in. Thanks again to this site, usually get great info from members.

Science project; Thanks to all for the help on train speed: heres a shot of the lad with his 5th grade science project!

Outstanding, good for him!

 

Paul

Thanks Railrunnin, the kids all happy about it! Hopefully they will give him a good grade for his work!

Most steam engines in  Canada  didn't  have speedometers  and the engineers would count the telegraph poles in say "10 seconds". They had a formula worked out to give the actual speed .   There are 40 telegraph  poles to the mile with mileage signs which start at the initial terminal for that subdivision... In CTC the signal numbers on the mask  are also the mileage numbers.

 

I can't remember the formula. 40 poles in 60  seconds would be equal to sixty miles per hour  anyone?