I know I have brought his up before but I want to start seeing what my options are. I would like to convert my engines to a basic battery power. I also want to keep track power, that way in the summer I can run the engines using track power. (I like to let the trains run for hours in the nice weather). In the winter or days when I dont have a lot of time to run like before work etc… I would like to use the battery power. Im sure this can be done but how? Also if I were to send the engine off how much would it cost for instalation for a simple set up. (Im a little afraid to mess around with the wiring etc…) Just looking for a simple set up On off with a dial for speed control. I want to do it to m HLW Big john and Porter. My plans are to have it done sometime over the winter when I get some money.
I would just work up both to hook up to a trailer car with the battery and speed control. Del Tapporo sells some speed controls that would work well - http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/DelTapparo/Critter_Control.htm Stick it in a box car and you could add a sound card/speaker too. The trickiest part is wiring up the locos with a DPDT switch for track/battery power. Its probably easy for the porter but the Big John is probably a bit more work with the two trucks. We could get you set up in a trailer car with speed control, batteries and chargers, and electronic bits in the $200-300 dollar range.
-Brian
When I first converted my Annie, I left a switch so I could run battery or track power. I never switched it back to track power, so later on while I was doing something else I took out the pickups.
I now run my Mallet all day long on batteries. I just keep an eye on the clock and switch out the battery pack every 2 hours. Oops. Now I have to drag it out of a tunnel 'cause I didn’t change it before it ran down.
Thanks Brian that was what I was loking for the critter control set up. NOw I just have to figure out how to instal it without killing my engines. LOL
Shawn Don’t let the smoke out ok??? LOL The Regal
Aristo locos are already set up for a trail car with plugs and a track/battery switch. With that statement I need to also let you know that the battery is not completely isolated from the track because the switch only controls one side of the circuit. One leg of the battery will feed into the track.
A Dual Pole - Dual Throw switch can be used to correct Aristo’s wiring, or to set up another brand selectable for track power or battery.
I think Brian’s idea of a trail car would need some modifications to all brands except Aristo.
Brian Donovan said:I think I said that Jon!
The trickiest part is wiring up the locos with a DPDT switch for track/battery power. Its probably easy for the porter but the Big John is probably a bit more work with the two trucks.
Brian Donovan said:Oops. I didn't Read The FULL Message :D :DBrian Donovan said:I think I said that Jon!
The trickiest part is wiring up the locos with a DPDT switch for track/battery power. Its probably easy for the porter but the Big John is probably a bit more work with the two trucks.
Make sure you can isolate both sides of the circuit. I failed to do that and was using track power for one engine while I thought the other which was on battery was off. It wasn’t isolated from the track current and shorted the cells in the engine. Bachmann plastic burns good but sure stinks.
Have you looked at IP trains “floating battery?”
http://www.iptrains.com/main.sc
It’s a battery pack that charges from track power. On dirty track the battery takes over: otherwise the track is charging the battery. I just bought one and am putting it in a loco I’m kitbashing. When it’s done I’ll report back
mike omalley said:
Have you looked at IP trains "floating battery?"http://www.iptrains.com/main.sc
It’s a battery pack that charges from track power. On dirty track the battery takes over: otherwise the track is charging the battery. I just bought one and am putting it in a loco I’m kitbashing. When it’s done I’ll report back
That is a very interesting concept.
Speaking of kitbashing…what happened with the boxcab?
Ralph
A Botanic visitor couldn’t understand why I didn’t bother charging the battery from the track.
I have several with just an on/off switch. I experiment with battery packs till I find the one that runs at the speed I want-it is usually in a car behind, but my McKeen car has them underneath, held on with wide velcro to the battery pack(flat 9.6 Radio Shack R/C). It gets run the most, no messing around, put it on the track and flick the switch.
mike omalley said:
Have you looked at IP trains "floating battery?"http://www.iptrains.com/main.sc
It’s a battery pack that charges from track power. On dirty track the battery takes over: otherwise the track is charging the battery. I just bought one and am putting it in a loco I’m kitbashing. When it’s done I’ll report back
I just read his Wiki page. I’m not sure why, if I didn’t already have track power, I would want to use his system. Seems like a lot of extra effort (keeping the track powered) with no real benefit over straight battery power. If you are going to spend the money for a radio control and batteries plus do the work or pay to have it done, why would you limit yourself to only running on powered track? The battery savings can’t be much when you look at the total package cost.
I like the idea but definitely wouldn’t power the entire layout, especially loops and wyes, why suffer with auto or manual reversing. I would plan on having powered sections where locomotives could park when not heavily used and charge.
I had planned on designing my own system but may just go with this one.
Jon Radder said:The benefit being you can: A. use smaller batteries. B. run all day without changing/charging batteries. Ralph
I just read his Wiki page. I'm not sure why, if I didn't already have track power, I would want to use his system. Seems like a lot of extra effort (keeping the track powered) with no real benefit over straight battery power.
Like Russ’s idea, my layout (in planning and excavation phase) will have powered sections where the locomotives or trailer cars can charge when setting or traveling over those areas. Some of the longer grades will be powered just to keep from draining the batteries. There is a switch in the engines to isolate them from the track so I can run on other layouts by battery power without worry about hurting their power system (if they run on rail power) or my engine “burning up”. the other nice thing with using this concept is you can also use it to keep the lights on in passenger cars or other light equipped items.