Large Scale Central

Aristocraft RS3 - How Many Amps?

General Discussion
#1

Greetings! I am working on a battery/protothrottle/DCC project going into an Aristo RS3, and I was curious how many amps it draws? I figure load would be at most 20 cars and maybe up to 3% grade (if it will even do that).

The root of the question is coming from decoder selection. From other scales I am pretty invested in the ESU ecosystem, so it makes sense to get a LokSound L or XL for this project. To that point I was wondering if I could save a little space and money by using the LokSound L (3A) or if I would need to use the XL (5A)?

Thanks for any input!

#2

I’m new to battery power, but everyone told me to get at least a 4amp decoder/receiver for my dual truck powered engines. In most cases on my layout I will be running just one engine at a time and doing switching moves with I think I could get by with a 2amp decoder, but I guess there could be a time when I would take my engine elsewhere and pull longer trains. I was told by Don at RCS of New England that I would just be better off in the long run with the 4amp decoder. I think for the way you will be running your engines that you best go with 4amp decoder and be safe and done with it.

trainman

#3

Scott

George Schreyer’s Pulling Power Tractive effort test chart suggests a 5 Amp decoder would be suited for the RS3 pulling 15 cars consuming 2.3A. Georges test suggest the RS3 can hard stall at 4.2A. Note three test regimens were made, each with different configurations and results.

http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips4/tractive_effort_tests.html

Michael

#4

John Lenheiser said:

I’m new to battery power, but everyone told me to get at least a 4amp decoder/receiver for my dual truck powered engines. In most cases on my layout I will be running just one engine at a time and doing switching moves with I think I could get by with a 2amp decoder, but I guess there could be a time when I would take my engine elsewhere and pull longer trains. I was told by Don at RCS of New England that I would just be better off in the long run with the 4amp decoder. I think for the way you will be running your engines that you best go with 4amp decoder and be safe and done with it.

Don knows best. I use the 2 amp board in a Railtruck (powered by a single Hartland Mack power truck) and an Aristocraft 0-4-0 pulling 4 cars slowly around the xmas tree.

#5

Great information, thank you guys! I had forgotten about the girr.org pulling tests. That’s a good resource.

Looks like I will be going with the XL, unless I decide to bail on ESU and get the TCS 501. :slight_smile:

Thanks again!