I’ve been battery/RC since day one. I eventually standardized on the Revo and have that in most of my locomotives and railcars. But, in my RR rebuild, I’m building to also have DCC track power.
Mixed feelings on this. I invested heavily in nickel-plated brass track, which requires very little cleaning – only to get dust off.
But I’ve been frustrated on many fronts with my NCE DCC system. Worse, I learned the hard way that if you leave electronic stuff connected to the rails, they are subject to your entire layout, which becomes a nice huge antenna for picking up an electrostatic charge from passing storms.
Yes, DCC is a form of rail power. But conversion to it can be, with the sound decoder, just as expensive as other conversions.
I’ve put a lot of work into DCC-controlled switch machines, and won’t easily let that go. However, I may continue to use the rails as a DCC bus for them.
Loco-wise, Jon’s had me pining for Rail Pro for a couple years… And, I recently bought an amazing RP-enabled critter, and controller, from Bruce. So… gears are turning.
Do you physically unhook your DCC when not in use, due to storms?
I sure do now!
,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
Oh nooooooooo!
It’s not difficult to unplug it though, as long as I’m not geezing.
Are you concerned? About…?
I probably am more concerned that the house has metal roofing and the garden bed is steel. Just surprised that it was an issue.
In any event, I don’t have a bunker with a blue pipe, the waybill codes, or a US Marine to accompany me and carry something like this during heightened tensions surrounding events like ShedOps 2024.
Though we were invaded by a splinter group from the Sydney Australian Garden railway club recently.
Bill, I didn’t mean to alarm you…
I was suggesting that if you have lightning issues, just provide a way to disconnect any sensitive elex from the rails, that’s all.
I haven’t been that close to a lightning strike… yet.
It’s always interesting to see what others do and why. There is really no right, or wrong way, just what works for you. One thing I really like about battery power is, I can take my engines to anyone track, put my engine on the rails and just start running regardless of what their control system is. Biggest thing is you have to stay with your engine and be in control all the time, but that’s the way I run my trains wherever I run them.
Track power on my first layout. It was in my full basement and controlled by all LGB power and controls.
Outside layout (Over 20 years ago) was dead rail and I’ve been Batt/RC ever since.
First with Airwire, and now Railpro.
I started off with track power, and a home made PWM controller. Outdoor - soon lost interest in cleaning track every time someone asked to see a train run so I converted 1 loco to battery (RCS / Phoenix) and have never looked back.
I don’t have a big roster so costs are relatively low. A while back (pre Railpro) I decided I wanted DCC functionality and moved to Airwire and Martin Sant’s ‘cheap DCC’ for those who remember. With a DCC enabled loco extra cost are about $100 USD to convert each.
Cheers
N
I haven’t chimed in because there is nothing like wind up and pull string .
I started track power and after some misfortune had to switch to battery power, settled on RailPro and never looked back. 1 controller that can run 10 locomotives at one time , either MU’ed or separately, MU function is leterally touch MU button , pick loco 1,2 etc and the modules talk to each other and speed match automatically. You can save some by getting a large millAmp hour battery and use it or like I do put a battery in each loco. Just looked online , controller $270, one time only.
Battery $70-100 , huge 10,000 maH is $120 in loco control module is $153 without and $170 with someone else adding the proper sound ( takes a long time to download a file ) and then Under $20 for a good speaker, and add maybe $10-15 for new LED lights so around $270 you have a locomotive that can run anywhere on any track with no track cleaning needed.
Pete, I found what you’ve mentioned quite interesting. I’ve been to only 2 meetings of my club because it’s 2-3 day drive to get there. At one meeting I saw a young bloke who brought his train from home to run at the meeting.
At your upcoming meeting, how many members might you expect to be bringing their locos to have a run on your layout? And as a host, are you expected to have some sort of track power available?
Yeah, ya gotta love Amtrak.
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Bill, no one in our club brings anything to meetings. We have a20x60modular layout , and have a hard time getting people to bring stuff, but you can run battery or track power at the event, and 90% of the time it’s me with fatter power and another guy with track power
I like the no worries about polished track , wheels being dirty or power getting to the locos all around the layout. A Wye and reversing loops are no problem either
The majority of my roster is track powered due mainly to the cost plus I like that an engine can sit for months and I do not have to worry about it being ready for the rails.
I do have 3 engines that are battery powered with Revo control. The last one I converted I put a switch in to run it on battery or track power. The best of both worlds.
When I run trains I have to clean the track to remove leaves, twigs, acorns and other debris and I have a train for that so whether I am running a track powered train or a battery powered one the track still needs to be clear and clean.
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I started out with track power. The constant cleaning and the stalling on turnouts and weird spots became annoying. I almost quit the hobby altogether.
Then I saw a dirt-cheap holiday battery set on EBAY. I bought it, put in a disturbing number of batteries, then slapped another battery in the remote. It looked ridiculous. The sound effects were holiday music. But it made it through all the rough spots that stalled the track locomotives without a hitch.
That prompted me to hire a couple of people well known on these boards to convert my three favorite locomotives to battery power. I made a provision for track power for the remaining locomotives, but each time I use then=m, I remember why I went to battery.