Padre,
There are people who have identity problems, difficulty distinguishing between different sections in a forum, are challenged by the concept of paragraphs, the laws of electricity and a few other things. What we need to remember is “model railroading is FUN”.
Now where the Dickens is my “Tongue in Cheek” smiley when I really need it?
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Padre,
There are people who have identity problems, difficulty distinguishing between different sections in a forum, are challenged by the concept of paragraphs, the laws of electricity and a few other things. What we need to remember is “model railroading is FUN”.
Now where the Dickens is my “Tongue in Cheek” smiley when I really need it?
There are people who post cryptic messages also. Model railroading is fun, I wonder when such people will learn that for themselves versus making such odious comments.
Fred Mills, BSc, BS, SD said:
There is one obvious question here…
Why is this subject posted here, when there is a section on this forum for POWER/SOUND, or ELECTRONICS farther down the list, which is where it should be, I would think.
Please correct me, if I am wrong…I have quite often been proved wrong…!!!
Fred, have you ever made a mistake in your life?
.
Fred’s only mistake is punctuation and OVER-CAPATILIZATION, he is a good speller, uses great grammer, and knows where to post things
He means well though, all is good when your learning the ropes here at LSC
Back to topic, went battery a few years ago and haven’t looked back, if’n yer planning on running the bigger locos then I’d suggest using your power tool batteries and not worry about buying special ones fer yer locos
Don’t ferget that you can use dunny locos as battery cars instead of freight cars (which can get a little boring with the same trailing cars) A battery loco looks a lot more 'normal" also
A dummy locomotive with batteries would do well. Especially with a three locomotive set pulling a long consist. Very practical idea Mark and thanks.
Stacy(?),
We all make mistakes, even the Padre, but we mostly try to make new mistakes, we learned from the old ones. 
Stacy Krausmann said:
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Padre,
There are people who have identity problems, difficulty distinguishing between different sections in a forum, are challenged by the concept of paragraphs, the laws of electricity and a few other things. What we need to remember is “model railroading is FUN”.
Now where the Dickens is my “Tongue in Cheek” smiley when I really need it?
There are people who post cryptic messages also. Model railroading is fun, I wonder when such people will learn that for themselves versus making such odious comments.
I think it’s a general statement in plain English.
Once a month we operate on a very large HO layout - between 12 and 15 of us. Mountain railroading of a free-lanced, single track mountain line from the BC Coast to the BC Interior. Usually 4 engines up front hauling 46 cars max. Black territory, dispatcher who issues verbal track orders. 4 branch lines with a lot of industries. Just like the prototype, fun, fun ,fun.
The rest of the time I just tinker on our own layout out in the garden or in the workshop. Basically fun, fun, fun. Or keep busy with my other hobbies. If it isn’t fun I don’t do it, life’s too short.
Stacy:
Not sure if this has been posted in this or other threads that you are participating in, but -
One of the few negative issues with battery power is related to smoke units. Their usage will quickly reduce the run time due to their relatively large current draw as compared to the motor and other accessories. Just something to consider.
When it worked, I ran smoke most of the time. Need to get that fixed.
Usually used about 2 amps for motors and lights. Smoke unit was another quarter amp or so. Very rough measurements.
Tom Ruby said:
When it worked, I ran smoke most of the time. Need to get that fixed.
Usually used about 2 amps for motors and lights. Smoke unit was another quarter amp or so. Very rough measurements.
What kind of smoke unit was that?
Aristo smoke unit uses 1/2 to 3/4 amp… Have tested 27 of them at one time when it was ok to do real evaluations on a certain manufacturer’s site.
Another power grabber is lighted passenger cars, and don’t forget lighted cabeese with smoke units.
Greg
Lighted passenger cars do not need to be powered by the loco traction batteries. A trail car could carry batteries with a large enough capacity to cater for all the lighted passenger cars any one loco could pull.
That’s true, all it takes is more batteries, and more chargers, and more modifications, more money and time.
Battery power does not do everything better than everything else, just answering the question (which I believe is battery R/C vs. track power in general)
Greg
Yeah what’s also true is if you make them battery they won’t flicker like track powered ones 
I wonder how many watts are used by all that track powered stuff? 18 volts at 10 amps is only 180 watts, which really isn’t a whole lot, when you start adding up smoke, and lighted passenger cars, and smoking cabooses, and… oh, yeah, the locomotive has to pull the train, too.
Hey Greg.
Stacy just asked about battery R/C, There is no mention of track - v - battery power in his original posting.
Attempting to change the subject in an argument for the second time, to me is a sign of someone getting desperate to avoid losing the debate?
yeah, it can add up, when I started thinking of what I wanted, and my grades, I came up with trains that pulled 10 amps on the grade… wow… at 24 volts that is 240 watts, it told me that for ME, a passenger train with lighted cars, 3 locos, sound and smoke was not going to be battery friendly.
(DCC usually works best with 24v on the rails unless you are all NG)
I realize that not everyone wants to run long lighted passenger trains, or 4 locos on a 45 car freight up a 3.4% grade… but that’s what I got.
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
yeah, it can add up, when I started thinking of what I wanted, and my grades, I came up with trains that pulled 10 amps on the grade… wow… at 24 volts that is 240 watts, it told me that for ME, a passenger train with lighted cars, 3 locos, sound and smoke was not going to be battery friendly.
(DCC usually works best with 24v on the rails unless you are all NG)
I realize that not everyone wants to run long lighted passenger trains, or 4 locos on a 45 car freight up a 3.4% grade… but that’s what I got.
Greg
LOL, now that you mention it, that’s probably why I melted the wires in my SD-45. The SD-45 was just ahead of the battery car, and behind two Dash-9s, all drawing from the same battery, through the SD-45, pulling 14 100 ton hoppers, up a 30 ft 4.5% grade for an hour or more on a hot day. It was fun while it lasted.
Youch! Well I makes me feel better that there is someone even crazier than me! 4.5% !!
Seriously, if I remember correctly, my Dash 9 is a lot slower than the original SD45’s which might make the SD45 work overly hard…
How do the unloaded speeds of your locos compare?
(I only have one Dash 9, a present from Scott Polk… really)
Greg
Sheesh guys, I model a Swiss NG mountain railway and kept the grades to 3.5% max. You guys didn’t look at the prototype, did you?
