Passenger and Freight Consists, What Speeds Do You Run Yours At?

I figure that the real ones (freight) don't go 120 MPH so mine shouldn't!

I set the max speed on all my engines to 70MPH. I never go that fast though. If the grandkids push the limits, than at least they won't jump the rails.

 I really like the look of long freights doing 50 or less. My passenger line isn't established yet so it doesn't get track priority.

There's another recent/current thread on this exact same topic. There hasn't been a new post to it in a few days, but you should be able to find it easily with the search function or just by scrolling through recent posts. 

On a small layout high speeds look silly to me. I prefer 4-6 mph for switching operations, less than 30 for DSC and Legacy with speed control and just over 30 for conventional.

 

I have seen other threads on this as well but always enjoy seeing new responses.

This is as fast we operate

http://youtu.be/VxnK0PSx3U4

For freight trains, I like to keep them in the 30-50 smph range.  Passenger I don't run much over 60 smph most of the time.  Occasionally if a GG1 or other electric is on the point, I'll run them at 80 smph. 

Very simple rule for me, run them at a speed that feels comfortable and looks good.

I like my feights at 30-40mph...ish.  Passenger speeds are higher of course but I never run anything over 50-60...ish.  Now my sons...they would love to move freight faster than NASA with the space shuttle...

Usually 25-35 for freights and 65-75 for passenger.

-Greg

20 to 40 mph.  I know the Supercheif and some passenger trains went much faster, but I like to watch the trains.  And with frieght, slow (20 mph) is just fun!

I speed em up and slow em down. Isn't that the way it always is in conventional operations when you want to keep smoke flowing?

Small layout so I run short trains slowly.

Usually around 15-45 scale mph, sometimes faster. I have fastrack on my layout with no noise dampeners, so at higher speeds the track noise gets so loud that it's harder to hear the engines. For that reason I like to keep them slower. 

I usually run mine at 25-30. I have mostly steam and I like watching the rods work. The fastest I've ever had my steamers go was an accident, my MTH Kanawha went over 70.

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.