Scale time

[Oldun]

I know there are plenty of postings about/on scale speed's BUT, how do scale down the timing 

I'm not sure about these days but, a few years back the stopping/standing time from stop to go/leave
at a station platform was 20 seconds. If you just visualise the train has just stopped, 20 seconds was
more than enough time for the passengers to get on and off the train.

So, question is - how long should the train sit in the station @ 1:148 scale time 

Roger

[PostModN66]

Prosaically, I would suggest 20 seconds.  It's not so long that people would get bored (if a train were stopping for half-an-hour I would shorten this to a minute or two).

If it was shorter I would worry that imaginary passengers were being dragged down the platform, one foot in!

Cheers  Jon 

[JasonBz]

I would agree with about 20 seconds for a station stop.

I dont think you can really slow down the time for station duties to be completed without the train appearing to be like a Taxi at a red traffic light

[Agrippa]

You can't scale time cos its not a dimension otherwise if you assume that
real trains stop for say 30 seconds a model train would stop for 30/148
= approx 1/5 of a second.

[dannyboy]

You can't scale time cos its not a dimension otherwise if you assume that
real trains stop for say 30 seconds a model train would stop for 30/148
= approx 1/5 of a second.

Would that make it a 'HST' High Speed Train (Sorry!) David.

[Derwentbob]

You can't scale time cos its not a dimension <snip>

Well, it is a dimension but our perception of it is different to the perception of the spatial dimensions. When we look at a model train we don't just see a small train, we see the possibility of a full sized train from a distance (see Father Ted, small and far away  ). We don't have a similar perspective view when it comes to time which is why scale speed is so much slower than real speed, we need to travel a scale distance in an unscaled time. However, we are used to compressed time from drama, we don't expect a weekend in the soaps to last a whole weekend. This means that small events like a station stop need to be in real time while longer events such as taking on water, running around or shunting can take place in compressed time without feeling unnatural.

[edwin_m]

I think there are two factors here. 

Yes, compressed time is useful if the prototype for a model would have long periods of inactivity such as a sleepy branch line terminus.  It's also used by the Americans for the sort of basement empire model which has several stations but even they don't have the space to provide scale distance between them.  So by running the clock 10 times faster two stations 10 miles apart can be separated by only one scale mile of track and the timetable will work. 

This sort of scaling can't be applied to events within a station - a stop of 6s instead of 1min or trying to run round in 10% of the usual time would look ridiculous.  However it may be sensible to shorten some of these activities on a model simply because there is no passenger or staff activity to look at.  For example 20s has been quoted above as a good dwell time at a model station but in real life it's actually only achievable by a commuter train (with power doors or passengers that remember to close them!) at a fairly quiet station.  Having the train stood doing nothing for a minute or more to reflect a more typical station stop would probably just bore the onlookers. 

[Agrippa]

In other words scale speeds can be operated , but scale time doesn't exist.

[Yet_Another]

I think Rule One, being dimensionless, applies in all circumstances 

Also, if you scaled time and distance, your trains would have to do the actual speed of the real thing, say for example 60mph, so the superelevation would take on wall of death proportions, and you would be in danger of seriously injuring someone if a train ever came off   

[Mr Sprue]

In other words scale speeds can be operated , but scale time doesn't exist.

I guess that has to be correct when you take into consideration that there are 24 hours in a day, whatever their size or scale beings on the planet all share the same time in their particular zone.

I think that's right....isn't it? 

[Agrippa]

Yep, a day is the same length whether you're an elephant or
a mouse , or even an N gauge mouse..............

[EtchedPixels]

Time is dimensioned so you can scale it just like anything else. Whether ti makes sense is another matter, but you can get scale clocks and some people really like them. Most are variable speed because while 4 times real time is quite nice for trains running through and signalling and the like you don't want 4:1 time while shunting or running around stock.

Each to their own. Just please don't bring layouts that run branch lines on real timetables at 1:1 to exhibitions!

Alan

[Steven B]

What we need is elastic time. It needs to run at 1:1 for shunting and station movements, and then faster to take in to account the less than scale distances between stations.

I've seen many layouts at exhibitions that appear to be running an actual Sunday service if the lack of train movement is anything to go by....

Happy modelling.

Steven B.

[Mr Sprue]

A little search via google I found this:

Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant theory's were that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be traveled.

And of course this: 

http://www.mcr5.org/articals/speed.php

[edwin_m]

Do we also need to consider Einstein's theories of time dilation?