Large Scale Central

Ni-Cad batteries.....a bit of history

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

From an old “Railway Gazette” February, 1978.

“Prewar power”

“A remarkable case of longevity has been unearthed in the signalbox at Northallerton in Yorkshire. Supplying power for point machines close to the signal box is a nickel cadmium battery commissioned by Chloride Alcad Limited on September 3rd, 1939, and now believed to be the oldest in existence.
The battery remains in use with only a slight reduction in capability, and still meets BR’s stringent standards”

This says something about the possible longetivity of our “Old” Ni-cads, doesn’t it ? I wonder if the “New breeds” of batteries will meet this challenge .

It would be interesting to find out how long after this was reported; that the battery had to be replaced. My guess is that it probably would still be there if BR was still controlling things over there !!

Does anyone else have any reports of “GREAT” service from their batteries ?

#2

Fred,

It would be interesting to know what the charge/discharge cycle of this “old-timer” was.

#3

Aaaaaaaaah!!!

The days of yore when things were made to last.

I had two packs of 7.2 volt 1300 mah Sub C NiCd’s from about 1988 until a couple of years ago.
They finally died.
Well not all the cells died.
I stripped them down and salvaged a couple to use as replacement batteries in a small battery scredriver I have. Still going strong although they only get charged once or twice a year now.

I have been doing battery R/C installs for the best part of 20 years now. By far the greatest majority were NiCd cells. So far I have only had a handful of battery packs fail my customers.
Two were NiMh AA’s. Another was a AAA NiMh pack and another was a AA NiCd pack.
I did have an early 4 x 3.6v Lithium metal pack fail and couldn’t get spares as they were no longer being made.

Sub C NiCd packs just keep on keeping on. So to speak.