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I like my trains to move at a good speed.Because when I was a kid I did not see that many slow freight trains.Seaboard coast line had fast freights.But I live near to the tracks.Come to think of it southern was no slow ether.So I was wondering On your layout do you operate fast freights or slow freights?

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I saw, heard, and/or felt the most trains my freshman year at NC State in Raleigh. The southbound SCL left downtown and uphill through the middle of the campus (double main line) really close to Becton dorm. The year was ‘66/‘67 and most trains had five Geeps and right at 100 cars, so going up hill they were cranking out the power and still going pretty slow. 

Some weekend nights we would walk a mile or so toward town when they were going slow enough to hop on for a ride back to the dorm, where we would jump off.

I like slow freight!

Last edited by TM Terry

I don't see very many fast freights in my real train watching so I do not run them fast on my layout.  I do run my passenger trains faster as I think that is prototypically  correct.  Fast freights look like the Lionel I ran as a boy that was as fast as it could without jumping the tracks.

Art

TM Terry posted:

I saw, heard, and/or felt the most trains my freshman year at NC State in Raleigh. The southbound SCL left downtown and uphill through the middle of the campus (double main line) really close to Becton dorm. The year was ‘66/‘67 and most trains had five Geeps and right at 100 cars, so going up hill they were cranking out the power and still going pretty slow. 

Some weekend nights we would walk a mile or so toward town when they were going slow enough to hop on for a ride back to the dorm, where we would jump off.

I like slow freight!

In my neck of the woods.SCL had 3 to 7 geeps pulling and going around 65mph.And the slowest train was the local.2 geeps mixed freight around 15 to 25 boxcars.

With sharp (uneased) curves, no straightaway longer than 10', and two trains sharing a common track occasionally, 25 is about as fast as I want to go.

It's your layout, so run them at whatever speed makes you happy.  But for all you fast runners out there who have a plethora of affordable loco choices going all the way back to 1938, I challenge you:  Try one of those video camera flatcars, or Lionel's new camera caboose.  SEE what your layout looks like at 40 scale mph. 

"30:1 or bust!  It's the gear ratio, it always has been the gear ratio."

TM Terry posted:

I saw, heard, and/or felt the most trains my freshman year at NC State in Raleigh.

Go Wolfpack!!!

When I came along to NC State, in the early 1980s, it was Southern freight making its way through the middle of campus.  I was in Sullivan dorm, which are where these images were taken.

NCSU

NCSU_Southern

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JeffPo posted:
TM Terry posted:

I saw, heard, and/or felt the most trains my freshman year at NC State in Raleigh.

Go Wolfpack!!!

When I came along to NC State, in the early 1980s, it was Southern freight making its way through the middle of campus.  I was in Sullivan dorm, which are where these images were taken.

NCSU

NCSU_Southern

Sullivan dorm reminds me of one I my favorite college stories about top floor of Sullivan, the power lines north of the dorm, two roommates, and a long chain of beer pop tops. I lived in Bragaw dorm and the blast and flash of light were impressive. No one was badly hurt, but the blast threw the guy on the ground against the fence, knocked his roommate out in his top floor room, and straightened and blackened every one of those beer top loops. A person watching on the ground as the guy stretched the chain away from the dorm yelled, “Look out for the power lines.” The guy stretching the chain replied with now famous last words, “Don’t worry. They’re insulated.”

Last edited by TM Terry

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