Model railway HO scale speed ?

Question

Model railway HO scale speed ?

Answer 1

Yes, it's advisable NOT to exceed posted speeds...

Okay, seriously, what do you want to know ?? How to measure ?? How to calculate ?

Speed is usually calculated in inches / second and converted... here are two links with scale calculators:

http://www.awrr.com/scalecharts.html

http://www.nhsouth.com/crafts/workbench/...

There are also a number of electronic gadgets now out their to calculate and display scale speed:

http://www.cp4e.com/trsped.htm

Answer 2

Speed is a measure of distance traveled in a specific time. In the "real" 1:1 world, traveling one mile in one minute requires a SPEED of 60 miles per hour. (one mile in one minute, so 60 miles in 60 minutes! or one hour)

HO scale is 1/87th of full size. So a scale mile is 5280 feet, divided by 87, or about 60 actual feet. So if an HO scale train travels 60 feet in one minute, it is going 60 scale miles per hour. It is also true that if it goes 6 feet (one tenth of a scale mile) in six seconds, the scale speed is 60 miles per hour.

A simple, but quite accurate way to measure HO scale speed would be to mark a 6 foot stretch of track. Then time your train to see how long it takes to go that 6 feet. Then multiply that time by 10, and you will have scale miles per hour. Sounds complicated, but it's all relative! LOL