The video is great but clearly the Pannier doesn't look comfortable at such speeds.

I'ill be sticking with 30mph or so!

To get a feel of scale speed entering a station from a passengers point of view I fitted a wireless pinhole video camera to an old MK3 coach and it takes about a minute to travel the platform length of four foot, the last 6 inches reduced to a slow crawl up to the buffer stop. Its only when I look up from the monitor that I realise just how slow the model is running.

David

A minute to travel 4 feet is around 7mph so maybe a little slow?

Is it possible that one of our members into electronics could produce a CHEAP gadget to fit on our layouts to measure the speed of our trains or is there a CHEAP gadget on the market already ? I often see really good layouts at exhibitions spoilt by running at high speed and then as someone said almost stopping dead at a station then starting at a great rate back to rocket speed.
I'm not into electronics but I'm sure it's possible to make something and would be interested in buying something as long as it's not too expensive.
Bob

Why not replicate the Cecil J Allen method? 

If your layout is long enough then add two mileposts a scale quarter-mile apart, which comes to almost exactly nine feet at 1:148.  Time the front of the train from one to the other - a stopwatch would be most accurate but you can get an idea from an ordinary watch with a second hand, or even just by counting the seconds. 

60s=15mph
30s=30mph
15s=60mph
10s=90mph
7.5s=120mph

That sounds a simple way to calculate the speed I agree ,But I would still like a visual indication to show you all the time as soon as your train is in the scenic part of the layout .bob

Of course you have all got it wrong ;-).  It is not scale speed but scale acceleration that needs to be correct.  The key, as has been mentioned is how the train enters or leaves the station.  That is dominated by the rate of acceleration and not the scale speed that come later.  What we nee is for some keen soul to do is take a videio of a train leving the platform and measure the time for the first carriage to pass a piont and then the next and ten the next etc.  This can then be plotted on a log scale the angle of the gradient of the line is then the acceleration.  Of cource the star A**** can use a spred sheet to fit a line through the points and define the acctual equation of the line.  This can then bee used to calibrate the DCC inertia.  (Ducks and runs for cover)

You're right, the acceleration has to be right too for stopping trains, not to mention the braking.  As a further complication acceleration reduces at higher speeds and I don't think a DCC decoder can be programmed to do that. 

If you can find the tractive effort of the loco used, and divide it by the weight of the train in the same units, this will give the maximum possible acceleration (as a fraction of the acceleration of gravity).  This might be achieved once the train "finds its feet" but is still at low speed, so an appropriate acceleration leaving a platform might be say half to two third of this theoretical figure.  You'll probably find it looks painfully slow, especially for steamers! 

Braking for passenger trains will typically be about 5% of the acceleration of gravity, which doesn't vary much across the speed range.  Modern trains are capable of 9% but use of maximum brake is discouraged.