The unsafe breathing conditions caused by the Canadian/US border wildfire smoke has curtailed any outside activities for me for several days. Not wanting to get involved in anything heavy, I decided to do a simple project I have been wanting to do. I took my Bachmann engines, a stop watch and a note pad to my workshop test track to see what scale speeds my engines were actually running, hoping they are in the "restricted speed" range as I have a switching layout.
I marked off a 6" timing zone in the center of my 3' test track. This gives me time to set the power pack throttle (I'm a DC operator) to the same voltage setting for each run and the engine to run steady before it enters the timing zone.
Before starting the "time trials" for each engine, I ran it several times in each direction giving it a chance to warm up and determine what voltage the engine runs its slowest but steady speed. I have a volt meter and amp meter connected to my test track. (For those that don't have a test track set-up, mark off a timing zone on a straight section of your layout track and use your power pack throttle/DCC throttle setting to determine your constant timing speed.)
I timed each engine for five (5) runs in each direction through the zone, thus giving an average to eliminate any variations in my timing thumb. Keep track of forward and reverse times separately as you will probably see a difference in these times; engines usually run faster in the forward direction due to that being the direction it has run the most.
Once I had the average time in seconds for each direction (don't round them off), I went to my computer to a site under the heading Scale Speed Calculators - Model Buildings. It has simple directions for its use, you just have to pick the scale, length of your timing zone and enter your seconds.
I was pleasantly surprised with my results. My Porter 0-4-2 runs at 3.04 smph forward, 1.98 smph backward; my Shay runs 3.05 smph forward, 1.88 smph backward. Both are more than satisfactory for "restricted speed" switching operations.