Tony,
Do you have an off the shelf system that might be used to control O-gauge 3 rail post war locomotives using track power (AC)?
Something to get those of us who don’t want to go the Lionel TMCC/Legacy//MTH DCS route away from the transformer?
Two ways to go… Control track power via R/C, or have an onboard controller/RC.
Something to think about…
SteveF
Sorry about the double post in Other Scales, but I decided this might be a better place for it.
Steve.
Nothing to control AC track voltage.
If the AC locos have regular DC motors you can use any of the RCS/EVO ESC’s on board with battery power to control those motors. I don’t know about the rest of any onboard electronics they may contain.
The usual provisos apply. It is difficult to get any decent range with metal body locos.
Dear Steve,
If I recall correctly, postwar motors are “universal”, meaning they could run on AC or DC.
As an experiment, try putting a 6 amp diode bridge (e.g. Radio Shack 276-1181) on the output of your AC transformer (one transformer terminal to one bridge ~, and the other transformer terminal to the other ~) then DC to the track (+ to center rail, - to outside rail).
Your train shouldn’t act much differently than regular AC,
perhaps a little bit slower because of the forward voltage drop across the diodes, and perhaps a little quieter.
If it doesn’t work as expected, quickly turn off or disconnect the power.
If you can’t find the 1181 bridge, you could make your own diode bridge with four 6A diodes, such as Radio Shack 276-1661:
(~)–>l–(+)–l<–(~)–l<–(-)–>l–(connect back to first ~)
Legend: stripe end of diode --l<-- non stripe end of diode
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
Steve , Those old Lionel motors really drank current becase you need to power the field coil. You will need a huge battery car to run those. However the newer stuff with dc can motors those could be run with a system like RCS 's . If I were to do it I’d put it all in a plastic bodied trailing car and wire the power to the loco. I remember some modelers doing O 3 rail outside with RC gear. Check on Clambakes classic toy trians web site. MTH has a remote control for their Z4000 transformer…a little pricey but it does get you way from the power pak… Dave