A removable media tray for an imaging device having a rear media restraint coupled to a media length sensing system. A rear media restraint, slideably latchable to a track in the tray, has a rack that engages with a gear train that drives an encoder gear. As the rear media restraint is adjusted for different media lengths, the rack and gear train rotate the encoder gear. The encoder gear has a plurality of encoder tracks each track having a unique binary pattern. A sensor array of a plurality of sensors corresponding to the plurality of encoder tracks has a plurality of outputs that combine to form a digital signal fed to a controller in the imaging device allowing the controller to determine a media length based in the position of the rear media restraint.