their LIon batteries in their locomotives, whether diesel or steam?
Are you worried about fire during charging?
Mine are installed in the tender. They can be removed, but I charge them in the tender most of the time.
I also charge them outdoors, most of the time. But have charged them indoors.
So, I think about fire enough to charge outdoors, but don’t worry about it enough to charge outdoors exclusively 
Ralph
Mine are a mix of tender and battery car installations (3 tenders, 2 battery cars). I never take them out.
Fire is a real concern…I’m sure a few will pipe up and say “no worries” but the FAA and US Postal service disagree. It is a danger, I never leave my chargers unattended. Granted the risk is minimal, but a few safeguards are well warranted.
Three locomotives only. Two steamers and one Berlyn workgoose. NiMH batteries in two tenders, never remove to charge. I charge indoors. In the Berlyn Goose, I have one Li-ion battery enclosed in the vehicle. Never remove to charge. Also charged indoors. I ALWAYS monitor when charging ALL batteries. I never leave them to charge UNATTENDED.
Mine are also installed in the tender and charged while installed there. And I’m usually around when I’m charging them indoors. The Rail Truck and Railbus and the one battery car batteries are removed to charge them.
Ken Brunt said:
Mine are also installed in the tender and charged while installed there. And I’m usually around when I’m charging them indoors. The Rail Truck and Railbus and the one battery car batteries are removed to charge them.
Why do you remove the batteries from those two, and the battery trail car, only?
Mine are all removable for charging. And yes I sometimes leave them unattended while charging. My bad!
John Bouck said:
Mine are all removable for charging. And yes I sometimes leave them unattended while charging. My bad!
If memory serves, yours are primarily in tenders. That makes it fairly easy to lift off the tender body. Do you have any diesaseals?
I run mostly diesels, and I install the batterys in the locomotive… With the advances in charging and the circuits installed, I don’t think the fire hazard is any greater than recharging rechargable batterys in a generic charger…
Guess, I should add that in my RDC’s, the batteries are removable and are taken out to recharge, along with the battery car… The exhaust hoods on the RDC’s are set up, so they only sit on the roof, and the batteries are placed under that exhaust dome inside the RDC…
"Steve Featherkile said:
Ken Brunt said:
Mine are also installed in the tender and charged while installed there. And I’m usually around when I’m charging them indoors. The Rail Truck and Railbus and the one battery car batteries are removed to charge them.
Why do you remove the batteries from those two, and the battery trail car, only"
There’s no charging jack on those, plus the batteries are easy to get to.
I have two FAs, a GP 40, and a Doodlebug where I can’t even see the batteries. I also have a LGB passenger car used as a trailing battery car for two locos but I can see it’s battery. All are charged indoors but not left alone or charged overnight. I don’t depend on the charger shutting down and I am constantly checking for heat. I also monitor voltages before, after, and during if necessary. I had one in the LGB car that I had fortunately pulled out because I was suspicious. It failed and got extremely hot but I was monitoring it and disconnected and removed outdoors. After 2 hrs the voltage was 0 so it was shut down and removed outdoors. It was returned and was replaced by Cordless. One of the cells had failed. After that, Rick is my battery man now!
Yes they can be dangerous but take precautions. It’s dangerous to walk across the street too.
All of my battery power is Li-Ion charged in the tender or trail car. I bring the loco/trail car into the garage for charging. I do place it on a somewhat fireproof surface for charging (only because of early fear of the unknown when I started, but it can’t hurt). I try to always disconnect the charger prior to going to bed. I don’t worry any more about charging my loco than I do my latptop which has the identical batteries, and it gets charged overnight.
I never “attend” my charging sessions. Seriously, does anybody stand over the charger for X hours watching a battery charge? This is strictly CYA talk. I do keep an eye on it, and disconnect as soon as charging complete is indicated or its bedtime.
I have 3 LiIon powered systems and building the fourth.
2 are Trail Cars. They both have removable batteries set up with 2 sets of with Tamiya R/C Battery plugs each. This is to allow two battery packs to be installed in parallel when needed for high amperage needs (like the plow train). It also allows for simple “refueling” out on the layout if a battery shuts down (LiIons go to 0 Volts with little warning). These battery packs are charged outside the trail car in the house. I put the pack on the rail when charging so it is not in direct contact with a flammable surface.
My Porter has two battery packs permanently mounted inside. I charge in the loco.
Shay #5 is planned to have batteries permanently mounted inside and will be charged in the loco.
Like Del, I’m not afraid of LiIon technology. It has been in my house for years in laptops and cell phones. So long as you don’t buy your batteries from the same supplier as Boeing you should be OK :]
I charge when needed. If that’s over-night then so be it.
(LiIons go to 0 Volts with little warning)
To be fair to Del, his current R/C offerings feature circuitry to give some warning of battery shut down. I do use his products but not that feature since I swap between 11.1V and 14.8V packs in the trail cars and his software needs to know the voltage to work properly.
I permanently mount my Li-Ions in the my tenders. i charge in my garage or barn, depending on where I have the loco atm.
I’m with Del and Jon. I dont worry too much about the charging because of the advancements in circuitry. If I worried that much I would never let my chordless phones sit on the holder and I would never leave my laptop plugged in.
I think the stigma with charging Li-Ion is overstated. If we take stock in the amount of Li-Ion batteries being used in our house right now, you would see they are very commonly used these days. I could just as easily have a fire happen by my wife leaving a candle burning.
However, if others want to take extra precautions, I say more power to you.
All of my locos have LiIon batteries installed inside them. They can’t come out, well easily. When I first started with them I would watch them like a hawk when charging.
Then I realized I sleep by a charging LiIon battery in my phone, I leave my Laptop plugged in most of the time and my desk top computer has a LiIon battery in it and it’s never turned off. Add to that my flash light and radio at work have LiIon batteries that see temp changes from below freezing to 200 + degrees get soaked, thrown around, dropped, kicked, used to break windows and generally misused and the thermal imager with a LiIon battery isn’t treated any better. Then when they aren’t being used on shift they sit unattended in chargers for two days or so…
I came to the conclusion that when my locos are charging I can walk away do stuff around the house and work on trains and such. If they are out in the barn I plug them in and walk away and remember to unplug them in a few days.
Terry
When charging appliances with Li-Ion batteries with built in factory fitted chargers and hobby use of the same chemistry, there is one big difference.
The consumer.
With the former the manufacturer of the appliance sets the design parameters that generally cannot be varied.
With the latter, the consumer is being relied upon to adhere to the manufacturers specs. Not always a wise option.
Good point Tony. I use all the factory recommended chargers for my trains.
Terry
Terry, your a fireman, correct?
How many fires do you see that ultimaely cause by a Li-Ion battery?
In my city we havent had any. Can’t think of any in the area either.
I do have to say that I had a friend have a house fire that they blamed on an overheated battery from a computer. But, even the fire inspector said that is not that common these days.