Going Battery

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MichaelF

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Hi folks. I've been a member for a few years, and got both inspiration and entertainment from lots of the site - but this is the first time I've posted. After a year when every time I cleaned the track and ran a few trains, we then had filthy weather which meant it all had to be done again, I basically got fed up and had very few operating days. I figure that moving to battery power might remove the need for squeaky clean track.
I run a simple out and back line with a Thomas and friends theme. When the grandchildren get older, I'll at least replace the faces with realistic smoke box doors.

I'm thinking that I'll start with Emily, whose large tender should accommodate the necessary "works". Just a few questions:

Have you any recommendations for sourcing equipment, receivers, transmitters etc? Preferred makes? Stuff to avoid?
Has anybody got any specific advice on converting an Emily?
How do you decide what voltage you need to put inside a particular loco?

And I'm sure in the light of your collective wisdom, there'll be lots of other advice you might like to throw in.

Thanks
 
You will find lots of advice here.. - Welcome to the Forum, by the way.

I won't blow my own trumpet, so have a look at what Ashley has done to his Thomas range models:


PhilP
 
MichaelF said:
Hi folks. I've been a member for a few years, and got both inspiration and entertainment from lots of the site - but this is the first time I've posted. After a year when every time I cleaned the track and ran a few trains, we then had filthy weather which meant it all had to be done again, I basically got fed up and had very few operating days. I figure that moving to battery power might remove the need for squeaky clean track.
I run a simple out and back line with a Thomas and friends theme. When the grandchildren get older, I'll at least replace the faces with realistic smoke box doors.

I'm thinking that I'll start with Emily, whose large tender should accommodate the necessary "works". Just a few questions:

Have you any recommendations for sourcing equipment, receivers, transmitters etc? Preferred makes? Stuff to avoid?
Has anybody got any specific advice on converting an Emily?
How do you decide what voltage you need to put inside a particular loco?

And I'm sure in the light of your collective wisdom, there'll be lots of other advice you might like to throw in.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Fosworks another option, have a look in the Battery Forum a few of my conversions in there, oh plus my Steam Tram in gauge 3 which is same size as Bachman Toby. As a rule 12v (10 x AA at 1.2v) tends to be sufficient though a few extras will not hurt depending on space. Note both Fosworks and Strikalight will make up battery packs to your spec including configuration. A handy tip is to tape some old AA together to see what fits your available space then send a pic of that when ordering. I also make dummies of varying boards to see how they can fit in, not too much of an issue with a tender loco but very relevant when you get to smaller non tender beasts.
 
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I only run battery and live steam, so have some truly filthy track -I  very occasionally wipe it with a cloth if I think the oily mess is contributing to wheel slip, but that's probably once a year/every two years. So I don't think you will regret changing!
Starting with the battery, the voltage will depend on what voltage the loco uses through track power. Most track-powered stuff seems in the 12 - 24 volts range, but can be quite quick when given full throttle, so you don't need to have the same voltage. 12 volts is perfectly adequate, and will give a realistic top speed, ie a scale 25 - 35 mph. You can buy disposable/recyclable (ie 'ordinary') batteries, but these will be quite expensive if you run lots of trains. Or you can buy AA or AAA rechargeable batteries, which you remove and recharge when they run down. Finally, you can buy a rechargeable battery pack that stays in the locomotive and is charged via a socket on the loco. I use Strikalite for these -there's a good choice of sizes and voltages on their website. Although technically a bit simplistic, the current rating (measured in A/h, or Amp/hours) indicates the length of run you'll get from a charge: the higher the Ah value, the longer your loco will run for. Speed and loading (how heavy the carriages are) will affect this too, of course.
Control-wise, there are a few options: our own PhilP PhilP trades as RC Trains, and Micron radio control offer similar products. Piko make a key-fob RC system too: I've bought a loco fitted with this recently, and it's different from the RC Trains/Micron offering.
Finally, look at the RC pages on ge_rik ge_rik 's Peckforton Railway website: it is hugely informative, inspirational, and can be used as a step-by-step installation guide. It's where I started my battery-power journey.
 
It depends on what level and sort of control you prefer.

If you want to use your phone or tablet as a transmitter then you could look at LocoRemote.

If you prefer having transmitters with a speed knob and buttons and switches then you could try Micron or Fosworks.

As has been mentioned, I've got some info on my blog which might help. Although this article was originally written in 2013, I updated it in 2022

riksrailway.blogspot.com

Getting started with battery power and radio control

Narrow gauge large scale model garden railway. Battery powered, radio controlled locomotives, some Bluetooth. Set in Cheshire UK in 1930s
riksrailway.blogspot.com riksrailway.blogspot.com

Rik
 
I went with self-build li ion batts.(Do to the hunt for cheap self-built track)
12v nominal should do the trick, even my Marklins runs good.
Just solder a good bms on the tested or newly bought li ion 18650 batts with a dedicated li ion charger and you will be home free.
Costs per conversation per loco without batts not even 3 euro, deltang receiver? i must apologize, i dont know, second hand tested 18650 50 cent per cell, you need 4.
I dont know if my transmitter or receiver of deltang is stil available, but i like them very much.

Like other options were stated even aa or aaa will do the trick, heck go for c or even sub c cells NiMh, or even d and make a wire from a car to your locomotive.
What do you need?
- a power storage
- electronics for safe keeping(bms) and charging.
- a receiver
- a transmitter.

Or buy a simple dc motor 12v pwm motor controller.
What do you want? control cheap or full control with remote? how much locomotives you plan to run? guide/controle?


Hope this was of any help. best Igor
 
All of my Thomas range has been converted to battery power with radio control + smoke units. For the last couple of conversions I have used kits from Fosworks.

Here's a video of Paxton's conversion.


For Emily the battery pack and radio control were fitted in the tender with a JST plug and socket connection to the loco. You may be able to spot it in this video.

 
MichaelF said:
Hi folks. I've been a member for a few years, and got both inspiration and entertainment from lots of the site - but this is the first time I've posted. After a year when every time I cleaned the track and ran a few trains, we then had filthy weather which meant it all had to be done again, I basically got fed up and had very few operating days. I figure that moving to battery power might remove the need for squeaky clean track.
I run a simple out and back line with a Thomas and friends theme. When the grandchildren get older, I'll at least replace the faces with realistic smoke box doors.

I'm thinking that I'll start with Emily, whose large tender should accommodate the necessary "works". Just a few questions:

Have you any recommendations for sourcing equipment, receivers, transmitters etc? Preferred makes? Stuff to avoid?
Has anybody got any specific advice on converting an Emily?
How do you decide what voltage you need to put inside a particular loco?

And I'm sure in the light of your collective wisdom, there'll be lots of other advice you might like to throw in.

Thanks
Click to expand...
If sound is not necessary I would go with PIKO 35040 RC unit with 14.8v lipo batteries from Amazon.
Bachmann Thomas series run on a small single can motor with a single shaft that don't need much voltage.
These batteries are small and come with their own charger. They are 7.4v but when hooked up in series gives you 14.8v and will not take up a lot of space with the PIKO unit inside the loco.
One may want to hook up a low voltage disconnect so not to over discharge your batteries.

1736604038972.png1736604392107.png
 
John Fedak said:
If sound is not necessary I would go with PIKO 35040 RC unit with 14.8v lipo batteries from Amazon.
Bachmann Thomas series run on a small single can motor with a single shaft that don't need much voltage.
These batteries are small and come with their own charger. They are 7.4v but when hooked up in series gives you 14.8v and will not take up a lot of space with the PIKO unit inside the loco.
One may want to hook up a low voltage disconnect so not to over discharge your batteries.

View attachment 337379View attachment 337380
Click to expand...
This suggestion is a pretty simple set up and you can have sound if required by using a My Loco Sound board as I have with my Swift 16 Railcar, you get 2 sound functions with this setup, unless you decide to use a TV remote which can access all the sounds but a bit clunky to use the remote as well!
 
If you want sound and full DCC functionality consider an ESU 5XL decoder and a CVP Airwire system (US) - these two engines are both configured that way and with custom LiIon batteries will run all day (the Shay ran on a rolling road for two days at an exhibition).

Mallet & Shay-1.jpg

With the ESU decoder you have full access to their sound library and can customise your choice of whistles, pumps, etc. via a LokSound programmer.

The CVP throttle does not require binding - you just press one button and type in the decoder address (ie: 7 for the Shay) and press enter - functions in a similar way to a Powercab.

I'm about to head off to the above location (Vic branch of AMRA club track) for a day in Melbourne's heat - only going to get to 28C today!
 
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