Large Scale Central

Battery and Track Power

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

This is not a thread to bash one or the other type of controlling your trains.
Nor “Mine is better” etc.

A few (3 or 4) years ago, every member of our club, except 1, ran on track power.
Today 1 or 2 members run on track power. Those who converted state they will never go back to track power. Ever!
Lately, even the newbies, start out with battery power on their first layout.
Members who had a good collection of track powered locos, are converting their favorite locos, one by one to Battery.

There has to be a reason for this change of controlling trains.

My question is does your club, or friends, or if you are a “lone wolf”, follow this trend?

#2

From day one, I knew I wanted to be battery/rc. I had had enough wiring issues with blocks, reverse loops, isolated frogs, dirty track, etc etc etc, to know I did NOT want to have the same issues outside.

YMMV

#3

AMEN BROTHERS!! The DARK SIDE is going to eventually be the “right, and bright” side! No muss No fuss, and you can use almost any condition of track and go where you want without worry of blocks or current!! Why you could even run on wood rails, I’m still looking for a source for bending ceder into curved rails!! Hah LOL Regal

Oh forgot QSI/G-wire make things even more simple and straight forward. Watchin all the problems with one of the other systems over on the OTHER site.

#4
Jerry Hansen said:
[b]<Snip[/b] I'm still looking for a source for bending ceder into curved rails!!
That shouldn't be hard, so long as you don't care what the rail profile looks like (rectangle) and don't want tight radius.
#5

I’m still in the minority out here in Denver when it comes to battery power. Most are still track power, with more converting to DCC than to battery. Since they’re converting from track power, they’ve already got the infrastructure in place, so it’s not as big of a leap for them.

Later,

K

#6

Most of the guys that I know who run batteries have pretty extensive layouts and all of them are into the operations end of it. Which is probably the main reason they use battery power. Then there are the ones who are just content running their trains through the garden. Those are in the majority in our club.

#7
Ken Brunt said:
Most of the guys that I know who run batteries have pretty extensive layouts and all of them are into the operations end of it. Which is probably the main reason they use battery power. Then there are the ones who are just content running their trains through the garden. Those are in the majority in our club.
This is actually quite logical. It's not too difficult to get a loop or two running reliably on track power, but when you add sidings that rarely see traffic, things start to break down quickly. Add to that the need for blocks to allow passing, etc. and an operational railroad built on track power outdoors gets to be quite a chore.

When I first completed my wye I set it up for track power with 6 blocks. That system was still working a year ago, but I haven’t tested it in over 6 months. When I started the expansion last summer, I did not wire it as a block, just connected it to the main. If I need to park a track powered loco on the new siding it must have a shut-off switch.

In winter I run battery via trail car or steam. That system also runs in summer, but I have the track power too if I want more than one train. I only have one batter set-up at the moment, but have the RX parts to build a second trail car should I ever need it.

#8

My first outdoor trackage was laid in the late '80s. Since I was a long-time modeler and indoor operator in the smaller scales, I was expecting to apply the same general construction and maintenance as I used on those railroads.

Within a few days I had to clean the (LGB) brass rail. Operation was still jerky, so I also cleaned the wheels on the LGB locomotive. Worked okay for that session. Within a short time I would have to clean the tracks every time I operated, and the wheels on the locomotives fairly often. Not particularly onerous, but still took up too much of my limited hobby time. And I hadn’t even started putting in blocks with the attendant need to isolate and wire sections to a control panel. I also didn’t like the need for electric power components (switches, solenoids, etc.) permanently installed in the garden. The whole situation was just generally inconvenient and not conducive to my idea of a hobby.

A month or so later, I was in Rara Avis Trains in Concord, CA. I saw a 27MHz radio control system that worked with a twin stick RC controller. It was designed for battery operation. I don’t remember the price, but I bought one, and installed it into my Deltron ‘Doozie’ railbus. Put it on the rails and it ran . . . and ran . . . and ran. That was the end of track power on the Boonville Light & Power Company’s railroad. The next month, I was back at Rara Avis Trains for another controller!

Next problem came when I installed the first couple of turnouts. After operating those turnouts manually for a couple of years, I found the Del Aire (and later Eze-Air) pneumatic controls. Now the only RR electric power is to the garden pathway and railroad lighting.

I do think that the ‘round & round operations,’ (seemingly more commonly employed in large scale) are more likely to be happy with track power, where the ‘scale operations’ type of railroad is much better served by battery / RC. I also submit that numerous folks who start with a round & round become bored and move in the direction of scale operations.

OTH, there are some folks who seem to have extremely negative personal relationships with any kind of battery. Those folks will never give up on track power.

Bottom line is different strokes for different folks.

Happy RRing,

Jerry

#9

Battery power has now become so popular that Jerry McColgan, a long time very vocal critic of battery power, is now dipping his feet into the medium.

As to why he has seen and followed the sign posts to Damascus is not clear. But, given his “fanatical” :wink: enthusiasm for the new REVOLUTION many are wondering as to his true intentions. :wink:

#10

We have 46 members in our club here in northern Colorado. I think there are only 2 of us that run 100% battery power (even though I am a large battery power presence in the club). Another one or two have at least one battery powered loco. You get the same old excuse … “at this point I have so many locos that I could never afford to convert them all”. Well OK … so heaven forbid don’t start with just ONE, cause you just might like it. You will soon find out that having one reliable running loco is all you need. Much better than a dozen that need constant maintenance just to jerk around the track. Just because you convert one loco to battery doesn’t mean you have to turn off the track power forever (although you will). I have X number of locos, and the only ones that ever get run are battery. All the rest are “waiting” to be converted. And they will be, if and when my battery powered locos ever die, or I get "A Round TUIT’. Folks in our club are afraid of electronics, yet I sell stuff every day to people that claim they know absolutely nothing, and report back to me that it all went well and they love it! That’s because there are NO electronics involved. If you can take apart a loco and hook up wires per the instructions, that’s all there is to it.

Battery power is much like live steam I guess. It is a self-contained propulsion system. The locomotive is self-propelled. You control the loco, not the track. When you run out of fuel, you have to refuel before you can run again. And, as everyone who runs battery knows, once you get rid of all those electrical continuity problems in the track, rail joiners, wheel pickups, etc., you are free to have more fun!

#11

Well said, Del.
We have one member with a large collection of TP locos.
I converted one of his to BP and for a while, he was like a kid with a new toy.
Then a while later I converted another. He is now a certified member of the dark side.

Another member with a nice big indoor layout also converted. Simply the joy of running a loco self contained.

#12
TonyWalsham said:
Battery power has now become so popular that Jerry McColgan, a long time very vocal critic of battery power, is now dipping his feet into the medium.

As to why he has seen and followed the sign posts to Damascus is not clear. But, given his “fanatical” :wink: enthusiasm for the new REVOLUTION many are wondering as to his true intentions. :wink:


I’ll never tell. :wink:

#13
John Bouck said:
My question is does your club, or friends, or if you are a "lone wolf", follow this trend?
John. Our local Railroad Club here in the Prescott, AZ area is one of mixed scales. We have a good N Trak group, a number of HO guys, one S scaler (Flyer), an O scale (2 rail) craftsman who mixed On30 into his O scale layout, quite a number of O gauge layouts (Lionel and MTH) and then there's the G gauge guys. One is indoor with complete DCC control. 3 are track powered and then there are 2 of us who are all battery. We're not alone but the number is growing with the advent of the new controlling systems, more and more people are asking questions about converting.
#14

When I to built in Germany, in the Chicken House, it was track power - sorry didn’t know any better! When I got home, I started in the back yard with concrete curb and LGB Track and oops forgot to put in a conduit for wires to do track power. Went to a PSGRS clinic with TOC talking about battaries - that took care of the track powwer idea! I have way too many locos now and all but two of then are battary/rc! Now that has been over a 10 plus year period, so it was not all one bit at the budget! Would never go to track power unless it was all inside. Paul

#15
Jerry McColgan said:
TonyWalsham said:
Battery power has now become so popular that Jerry McColgan, a long time very vocal critic of battery power, is now dipping his feet into the medium.

As to why he has seen and followed the sign posts to Damascus is not clear. But, given his “fanatical” :wink: enthusiasm for the new REVOLUTION many are wondering as to his true intentions. :wink:


I’ll never tell. :wink:

Woo Hoo!!.
The new Jerry McColgan.

Brevity of answers no less. A (very) welcome change.
Welcome to the dark side Jerry.

#16

Err, why not do both? http://www.iptrains.com/TrainUPS-Conversion-Kit-FBCK1.htm

Works like socks on a rooster…

JT

#17

Neat idea Jeff, but if you are going to bother and put batteries and electronics in the loco, why bother with the electrical headaches to keep track power present?

I’ve seen similar systems used with DCC outdoors. That seems to make a little more sense to me because of all the cool things you can do with DCC.

#18

Also,
From what I gather reading about this system, (Which doesn’t add much credence to my reply, being the old fart that I am :slight_smile: :slight_smile: ), it is not good for a battery to be discharging and recharging constantly.
To make a battery last and also to perform at it’s best efficiency, it should be used properly.

Jon,
I also think this is redundancy.
You still have to scrub track, maintain wires, etc.

#19

John.

Could you define “it should be used properly”?

Charging and discharging is what most batteries are supposed to do.

#20

What I meant is it looks like the track power is charging the battery and the battery is discharging to back up the dirty track at the same time.
A battery should be discharged and when it is low, recharged.
But what do I know.