Onboard battery in LGB green/red Feldbahn loco

artfull dodger

artfull dodger

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Has anybody here done an onboard battery conversion to the LGB green/red open cab feldbahn locomotive? I am wanting to totaly loose track power on my outdoor line. I would like to convert my engine to onboard battery with a center off, DPDT, toggle switch to control forward/off/reverse operation. I would probably hide a variable resistor to control top speed, get it set and leave it alone. I am breaking in the drive on track power over teh winter on my indoor layout. I have had it appart, if the heavy lead weight was replaced with an battery pack, I think it would work. Question is coming up with said battery that fits under the bonnet and will give a satisfactory run time. Mike
 
That's a tough one indeed. Even a 12 volt Li-on battery will have difficulty finding it's way into that small space. When I converted my railway to battery power, I opted for trailing battery cars. I also run small equipment and did not want to sacrifice loosing loco weight by replacing the weights or part of them with batteries. I power the locos through the lighting sockets. Since the felbahn loco doesn't have lighting sockets I had to make my own. Here's a very short film of the loco with it's battery car. R/C components are also housed in the battery car, so if you only want batteries the car can actually be smaller in height.

http://youtu.be/nDLbGoQa-0k
 
I wasnt going to do RC, just a simple toggle switch to set the direction or turn it off. I am not above replacing the LGB motor with one for a lower voltage. Or even sticking an IP Engineering chassis under the LGB body. Speaking of IP, I need to get 45mm wheel sets for one of thier Timothy timber trucks, its set for 32mm gauge, but I am going to pop the chassis appart and reglue for 45mm gauge I think. Mike
 
artfull dodger said:
Speaking of IP, I need to get 45mm wheel sets for one of thier Timothy timber trucks, its set for 32mm gauge, but I am going to pop the chassis appart and reglue for 45mm gauge I think. Mike
Click to expand...
You may have seen earlier discussions on the forum about IP engineering wheels and LGB pointwork. If you're using Peco points you should be OK but if using LGB R1 points you'd be better rewheeling with the smaller Bachmann metal wheels if they'll fit - though I think the journals on IP wheels are 2mm rather than 3mm.
Rik
 
I was thinking of another route you might consider taking. Why not use two nine volt batteries and a G Scale Graphics Simple Critter Control. The batteries should fit under the hood and the Critter Control could be mounted in the cab. You might even get away with one nine volt battery if it gives you enough speed. This loco is meant to run slow anyway.

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/DelTapparo/gscalegraphics_1_020.htm
 
I think I would go for two to get longer run duration. I will look into the critter controler. Thanks Mike
 
2 won't give you longer duration if wired for higher voltage (series), you'll keep the same mAh which is about 900mAh for 8v for rechargeable batteries. This will give you quite a short run time. Putting them in parallel will give you a higher mAh but you'll get the 8v voltage. Rechargeable batteries in parallel is not always a good.
 
I am thinking of stuffing an IP Engineering chassis under the LGB shell. They are set up to run on battery power and would draw less than the LGB one. Most IP's seem to like to run on a couple AAA or AA batteries. Mike
 
I have posted an answer to this on the 7/8ths lounge but I'll give a quick answer here to. I have battery power and a speed controller in my 7/8ths conversion...but I have extended the height of the sides of the bonnet by about 15mm for 7/8ths use. I am using a Timpdon Speed controller controlled through the exhaust/air cleaner as a knob and powered by 6 AA's plus a DPDT centre off switch for the directions and stop (plus an on/off for the speed controller.).

Here is a quick pic of the way it fits together. I do wonder if you were using a recharge socket etc whether you could loose a couple of batteries in the front and back chassis weights in some way? I'm using none rechargables atm here as I wanted to be able to swop out the batteries quick in the event of them running out at an exhibition... mind you they have seen out 2 day long exhibitions in turns with another loco so far! I suppose its better that the loco has very little strain put on it as the loads it pulls never amount to more than 5 unladen skips! On the black loco below (another 7/8ths conversion I did for a friend) you can see the added bits to the side of the bonnet.

ATB

Steph'





Feldbahn1.jpg


DSCN5043_2.jpg
 
That looks nice Steph!!! That is exactly what I have in my minds eye for that engine. I think the LGB FRR cars are a bit oversize when compared to the stock engine. I really suspect they would look really nice behind that engine in the last pic. Wanna upscale mine to 7/8th's? I would run rechargeable AA batteries, but they would have to come out to be charged. Just having the bonnet a friction fit so it comes off easily to swap out batteries when needed seems like a good idea to me. Do you think a pair of 9vt batteries, which would fit better, fed thru a speed controler would last as long or longer than the AA's?
Mike
 
Here is my whole feldbahn train, all LGB other than the stained IP Engineering car that got a raised frame and LGB wheels. Mike
trainpics019-1.jpg
 
Here she is in battery form! I removed all the wheel brushes, that alone was worth 2-3 wagons in drag on the motor!, as well as the track skates. I put a 4 cell AA battery holder under the bonnet, wired to a DPDT(double pole, double throw) center off toggle that I mounted in the rear cab wall, was to hard to operate inside the cab. Using 4, 1.2vt Nicad batteries, the speed is spot on. I havent tried normal 1.5vt batteries yet. I wanted a headlight, so I made up one similar to the Darjeeling ones with the branch guards over the lense. I used a golden white LED with a dropping resistor wired right to the motor's power leads. Being an LED, the draw on the battery should be minimal. Not sure how long the batteries will last. I did remove the two brown wagons as it was really slowing down in the curves. Seems happy with the train in the new pics. Gonna try her on the grades in the garden later today. I replaced the small LGB engineer with this larger figure I had on hand, not quite 7/8ths, not quite sure what scale he is! Methinks the plastic wheels on the LGB wagons have more drag than the steel wheels on the two rear wagons. If I put steel wheels on the other two, maybe she will pull them all. Doubt the rearl one pulled much more than it is in the new pic below Mike
gardenrailway002-1.jpg

gardenrailway003-1.jpg

Here is the switch, up is forward, down is reverse, centered is off.
gardenrailway004-1.jpg

gardenrailway005.jpg
 
I am still torn on whether to do the layout/engine names with names from Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit or my original love of Charles Dickens Oliver Twist. As you can tell by my screen name! My original plan was for the steamer(Regner Willi) to be named Oliver and this diesel would be the Artfull Dodger. Later engines to have names of Fagan as well as others from the book/movie. Gonna have to think on this one, nothing is set in stone yet. Mike
 
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