Speed Demons, slooow pokes....how do ya enforce your track speed?


Alcomotive

Alcomotive

Grandson of an ALCO Builder
I was wondering how some of y'all operate your layouts or at the club speeds. You know that guy that runs like a bat outta hell and then there's that guy that runs so slow you're so backed up it's a parking lot? ;) Ya... you know what I mean...:D

So does any one have one of these? or something similar? I like to hear from ya about your thoughts....

http://greenwayproducts.com/buy_speedometer.shtml
 
I guess a model speedometer is one idea but the way I've done it in the past is that a train has working time to get from one point to another. For example, I may have a local that's competing with a through freight. The local would have a given amount of time, like three minutes, to foul the main before the through freight occupies the block. The through freight has to clear the block within one minute but not any sooner or he'll run into another local working up the line. I'm not all that good at operations but I've found just having a time I know that I can occupy a certain section of track but not leave it tends to keep the speeds in the range that's realistic for operations.
 
Decoder pro is an excellent program for speed matching! I've used it with my friend F45 witha LokSound decoder with funny speed steps, and my other locomotives, now she'll run with anyone!
 
Yeah guys I understand the timing factor (fast clock) and matching speeds with decoder pro but what I was getting at was realistic operation. I been to a few layouts and clubs where ya see some guys running fulll tilt thru a yard or some just dragging their tail on the main line. One club I went to has actual signs for speed limits, yard restrictions etc for realistic running while using the clock and these little modules that are set up on various places on the layout. It makes it interesting I think. It wouldnt do me any good cause I have a shelf layout but some you other guys out there have somemonsterous size layouts...could have some fun with this...?
 
I belonged to a huge club in LA in the 70's with a layout where you couldn't see from one end to the other. One of our electronic geniuses came up with a speedometer system based on the time of travel of a train from point A to point B. He built one into every walk around throttle and the DS console had a speedometer for every train. I think we could run 10 at one time. Every operator was given a maximum speed he could run over certain blocks and a minimum speed he couldn't fall below in certain blocks. It worked really well but the detection system was a nightmare to maintain since it was based on wheel resistance and every car had to have wheels than met certain specs. The one you linked to looks a lot easier using optical detection so it could be a pretty nice addition to a big club railroad. For smaller layouts, I notice some of the DCC throttles also calculate the speed of trains running so that would be fun knowing exactly what scale speed I was running since I suspect my eyeball speed test is too high.
 
Hey Jim......... so your saying that some of the throttles today have a conversion for speed (scale mph)?? wow! I wonder if my DT400IR does that from Digitrax??? I think I will look into that...hmmm....I know it does seem sensible to some guys but I fimd it interesting. I would like to get an idea what the SCALE speeds look like in HO...
 
just program your decoder with a top speed step of your maximum speed limit on your layout. like the guy ( cant remember his name ) did on his BNSF Chillicothie(sp?) Sub. did so all his locomotives run at about 50-60 MPH range at full throttle.
 
oh yeah Bruce Carpenter....but it wasnt set to read scale mph though...I am not sure, I will go back and read that article again....
 
Alco, my memory is shot right now but I know the new Bachmann Dynamis will read train speed and another handheld unit - Digitraxx, MRC?? - one of them also reads train speed when the engine is selected. I'm sure someone else here knows. What I'm not sure about is if the controller is reading the actual train speed or the speed step information. You could tell by having a measured length of track, a stopwatch, and a little math to see how close they match up.
 
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that speedometer is on my clubs layout (see the EMRRC link below by sig)

we have max speed on the layout of 60 MPH that is one of the single track section where you can see how fast your top speed is set at safely. all my locos are speed matched to run max 70MPH without a load. when med to fully loaded the engines tend to run at around a max of 60-65MPH.

Trent
 
Alcomotive said:
who makes it and how much is it?
Click to expand...

Not sure? it almost looks like they fabed up the blocks to support it so I dont know if they made most of it or just bought the device from a store. It was batt powered but I think its now hardwired in. I will ask them on sunday who makes it.

Trent
 
I asked on our clubs Yahoo groups account and no one has replied with info. I havent been down when members were present in about 2 months so I have yet to find out.. I havent forgotten about you tho LOL

Thanks
Trent
 
Also Atlas DCC loco's have the option to run in scale mph instead of speed steps. MTH engines run only by scale mph.
 
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