# How long does it take for a loco to go around a mainline?



## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

Sounds like a stupid question doesn't it?

But I'm serious.

I'm improving a discovery routine to a program. It has to discover, identify and measure all the Transponding zones on the longest mainline. It will only need to do this once during initial setup.

That is not a problem. That has been working for years.

Now I want to add a progress bar. Just to make the user interface a little simpler.

Since I don't have any idea how long it will take to make it all the way around, the progress bar starts out growing big fast, but then gradually slows down, slower and slower as it gets closer and closer to the end of the bar. The progress bar, will never make it all the way to the end, until the loco actually makes it all the way around.

I'd like for the progress bar to about show half done on the average railroad for most home users when the train is about half way arround.

For that, I need to know how long it takes on most railroads for a train to go arround the mainline.

So, take a guess. Running at the speed you normally operate, about how long would it take for a typical train, without stopping, to make
one complete trip around the longest mainline on your railroad.

If you have, (or had) more than one layout please include additional railroads.

Example 1. My garden railroad has one scale mile of track, I normally run at about 15 scale MPH. So, my first layout is:

(1) G scale = 4 minutes

Example 2. My little N Scale shelf layout is about 1/2 scale mile on the main. I run typically run 30 scale miles per hour. So My second railroad is :

(2) N scale = 1 minute

So, How long does it take for a loco to go around YOUR mainline?

B0B


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

15 mph???? 50 to 60 mph here. I have no idea. I usually do an onboard video, the time the video after it makes two loops. not sure with 3 loops now.


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## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

Shays and Forneys here. The just don't look right at 60?

I run diesels on the N scale layout, but the layout is just too short to run at real speeds. 

So, How long is a video of two complete loops?


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## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

I have a little less than a scale mile of mainline (160 real feet.. 4640 "scale" feet).. It takes me about a minute and a half at a scale 40 mph.


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

How long is a piece of string?


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## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

Jute or nylon?


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Bob, 
Instead of a typical progress bar, why not have a counter that indicates the number of feet "discovered" to date? That way, you're still showing "progress", but you don't have to worry about how long it is before it is actually measured.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Somewhere between 35 seconds and 5 or 6 minutes... depending on how I feel about running fast or slow.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Well..... If my daughter is operating it takes about 12-15 seconds. If I'm running it takes maybe 40 seconds... but I have a whopping 215 INCHES of mainline (about 18 feet or 7/100 of a scale mile) hehehe


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Obviously the answer will depend on... 

1. The length of the mainline, and... 
2. The "average" operating speed. 

These are both going to vary greatly from layout to layout. On mine, I have roughly 300 feet of mainline. At a moderate speed, it takes about 5 minutes to do a complete loop.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

About 2 and1/2 min to run my 300ft. Later RJD


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## eheading (Jan 5, 2008)

My mainline is about 480' long. It takes about 3.2 minutes at 50 mph, and about 5 minutes at a little over 30 mph.

RJ, sounds like you are figuring at about 40 mph. Is that right??

Ed


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

I'd say that's pretty close ED. Later RJD


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Takes about 1-1/2 minutes for trains to go around our mainline.


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## Guest (Jan 27, 2009)

on my indoor layouts i allways tried to let elapse more than two minutes, before a train comes back to the starting point. (if possible, even longer)


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Marty, it's easy to get an estimate of your train's speed. Just count 1 thousand, 2 thousand as it goes by. You have to know the length of the cars, but if it takes 1 second for a car to pass and your cars are: 

40 ft old freight cars -- about 27 mph 
53 ft evan's type cars -- about 35 mph 
60 ft -- about 40 
80 ft coaches -- about 55 mph 

Easy to figure with a calculator. 

Car Length * 60 * 60 / 5280 

Gives you MPH when it takes a second for the car to pass. So just stick one of these speeds in your mind, and you can easily guess how fast your train is going at any time. 

(This works in any scale)


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 01/27/2009 7:01 AM
40 ft old freight cars -- about 27 mph 
53 ft evan's type cars -- about 35 mph 
60 ft -- about 40 
80 ft coaches -- about 55 mph 

(This works in any scale)

Except I have lehmann cars, they are only about 18 feet..... guess I'll have to count two of them.


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Bob,

Why not add Mileposts which your system reads as it passes. Maybe it would be possible to do this with reed switches and magnets? Build your status routine as a function of the last 3 'inputs' from the Mileposts and a counter. That way, if Ally and her friends are running the trains at 'warp' 9, or stop one for some reason, your display will show somewhat real time status. 


That way, if you are running your forneys with a string of log cars at 25 mph, and a shay with some boxcars at 12 mph, you will see the Forney catching up with the Shay.

Mark


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## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

Bob,

*60 Smph = 88ft/sec x 1/29 = 3 fps. or 36in/sec.* 

At 60 smph, it would take approximately 68 sec [ 1min, 8sec ] to travel the 200ft. of my outer loop. 

Usually, I only run the passenger trains at about 45 smph due to grades/curves [ times 4/3]. 

Therefore, it would take approximately 85sec. to travel the loop @ 45 Smph.

The freight trains run slower. It takes about :02:30 minutes for them to make a loop. 
Therefore approximate Scale mph for the freight is 25 Smph.

Hope this helps, This information is a little more accurate than I gave you the other night.

JimC.

Approximate Speed/distance covered per second.

*60 SMPG = 36in/sec. 45 SMPG = 27in/sec. 30 SMPG = 18in/sec. 15 SMPG = 9 in/sec. @ 1/29th.*


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

18ft cars -- 1 second per car would be 12mph. About 24mph at 2 per second.


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## lathroum (Jan 2, 2008)

I would guess I'm running my trains in the 30-35mph range...

I run indoors...

It takes just shy of 1 minute to loop my outer mainline (about 55 seconds)...

About 43 seconds or so on the inner...

I was doing the 40ft box car/1 sec method...


Philip


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## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

Depends on one's nerve and trackage:


A true high speed freight service!


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## mhutson (Jan 2, 2008)

Bob, 
Takes almost exactly five minutes for one of my trains to make a lap, running at roughly 35 scale M.P.H. 

Cheers, 
Matt


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