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.
For us it came down to a a function of cist modified by how we run the Triple O. For a small railroad like ours, rail clamps and DC power proved the most cost effective. We clamped bit by bit as budget allowed, spreading costs. The Triple O is small enough that we are usually up and running in 15 minutes. We have a lot of family hand me down trains, and it would be a shame to consign them to the shelf! Operations are possible, with a loco serving the mill and fields and another train or two on the mainline, and, of course, it is easy to turn things on and let them go! Infinite cash? Sure, I’d convert the lot, as we do enjoy how problem free our two battery powered units can be.
As someone said above, it really depends upon how you plan to enjoy your railroad.
Eric
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Continuing the discussion from Battery power vs. track power:
I started with battery power from day one, not having access to proprietary battery control systems (and their expense was prohibitive to import) I resorted to a make my own strategy
I’ve used a mixture of speed and direction controls with the majority of my sound cards being MyLocoSound.
This blog page give an idea of what I have used over the years.
I use 2 stick aircraft transmitters but having a heap when running became a chore trying to keep track of which transmitter was for each loco as they all look the same, so I resorted to this which has made life a lot easier.
Exactly !
“Heed those words” and I do believe that you stated in other threads “mother” did mention that it’s NOT just YOUR railroad any longer !
So with that said I will for see the Triple O ditching them rail clamps (which you could sell ) as Amtrak and Modern Mainline modeling requires fully welded rail which is VERY cost effective.
The boy will be able to learn how to hard weld/solder 332 rail from a video Mr. Rooster will share with him soon. Do you have a micro torch if so I will send him all the flux and solder he needs.
