Well, “It depends”; There’s a lot of variables at play. We use landmarks, for both where to start setting the air and where to spot the train. Then you make adjustments based on speed, number of cars, weather conditions etc. Just as an example, using Naperville, measured on Google Earth, the landmarks I use are ~3000’ from the platform, both directions. That’s good for 70mph and 11 cars/1 engine. Full service air/full dynamics, and then a graduated release of the air to “float it” to a stop at the end.
Good to know, but 3,000' scales out to about twice the length of my current layout in N scale. Gonna have to "compress" that.
But, with modern decoders that can be programmed for significant momentum, the concept of using landmarks to begin slowing passenger trains for station stops seems like a nice concept to make ops more realistic. So, thank you for giving me an idea to enjoy.
