Want to know what speed in miles per hour your trains are travelling?
Note: This gives you an approximate speed only and some numbers have been rounded up/down for ease.Here is a formula;
1. Mark out a length of track (at least 1yd/3ft (914mm)), multiply by the number of seconds in an hour (3600), the multiply again by the scale of the train (example for 00 this would be 76 (from 1:76)).
2. Now calculate the time the train takes to travel the length of track marked (most mobile phone have a stopwatch) and multiply it by the number of millimeters in a mile (1609000).
Take your result from 2 above and divide it into the result from 1 above (you might get a long answer, but the first two digits before the point will give you the speed in mph).
So the formula is = DISTANCE x 3600 x SCALE / TIME x 1609000
DISTANCE - is space between two points e.g. 1yd (36in - 914mm)
3600 - is the number of seconds in an hour
SCALE - is the scale of the train you are measuring
0 = 1:43.5
00 = 1:76
H0 = 1:87
TT = 1:120
N = 1:148
TIME - is the time take in seconds for the train to cover the distance between the two points
1609000 - is the number of millimeters in a mile
As mentioned this is not an accurate calculation just an approximation.
Hope you find this of use/interest.
Martin
