Just got mine set up and it appears to be going pretty slow. No faster then any other trains I have seen on the spectrum transformer I need to put it up to 50% power to even get it to move? Is this normal? I know people said if you use a different transformer it can make it go faster. But I thought it woulkd go a little faster then this with the factory transformer. ANy help is greatly appreciated thx derek
No, it won't go faster, unless you can crank up the voltage past 12V, which I do _not_ recommend. The power pack that comes with the set produces enough power for the engine to haul its the dummy loco and six coaches.
The fact is, those other trains are running too fast. Most model trains do, so don't sweat it. Don't turn the power packs control knob past about halfway - that's the setting at which most Bachmann engines run at
50-60 scale mph. That speed will look sl-o-o-ow to you until you get used to it. :-)Besides, 150 scale mph doesn't really look all that fast from normal viewing distances of 2 to 5 ft, or 200 to 500 _scale_ feet. To give you some idea of scale speed: if it takes one of the Acela cars 1 second to pass a given point, then it's travelling at around 60 scale mph.
If you've set up the train on its own oval, you have about 14.5 actual feet of track, or about 1250 scale feet of track. At 150 mph, a vehicle is travelling at 220 ft/second. So at 150 scale mph, the train should take close to 6 seconds to circle the oval. If you haven't got a stop watch, use the "one tugboat, two tugboat" method to estimate the time. If it's around "6 tugboat" when the train comes around again, it's running in the right speed range.
Simple number fact to remember: 60 mph = 88 feet per second.
HTH
One of the guys in our club has a Bachmann Acela that he brings to run on our modular layout. He's even added the two additional cars normally seen in the prototype. Using our normal MRC Controllmaster 2000 power supplies it regularly runs about 100 smph at full throttle in normal 'DC' mode (regular HO setting of the PS). that's not as fast as the prototype, but plenty fast on a model railroad!
I suspect the reply above is correct ... you're probably used to seeing OTHER trains running WAY too fast!
P.S. The Acela actually runs quite well ... it tracks decently even in 'push' mode, at high speed. We were a little apprehensive if this at first, but it's not proven to be a problem. Perhaps I should add that our modular layout has 38" radius curves.
One side note. The owner recently installed a DCC decoder in the unit, and now it only runs about 60 smph full throttle in DCC mode (default values). He's NOT happy with that. Perhaps he needs to mess with the 'CV' values or some such.
Dan Mitchell ============
And if you're still worried about duplicating prototype Acela remember this....the real Acela only does the 150 MPH on straight, tangent track. So doing 150, even scale 150 is not prototypical on an oval, LOL.
David Harrison
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