Power survey

Poll Poll How do you power your outdoor trains?

  • Total voters
    54
Mobi said:
I see that few members indicated both track power & battery.

I can understand when someone uses battery only - no need to ensure track conductivity, so less hassle with track cleaning.

But when you are already happy with track power and conductivity is not a problem, then what benefits you get with battery?
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Separate Power and Control.. Digital Control with high amperage motors which don't burn out track and wheel contacts.
 
ooooof, no. My skills don't go that far. I'm unashamedly an off the shelf person. I'd never get the build quality and paint job.....
 
duncan1_9_8_4 said:
I could never bring myself to buy a new LGB locomotive (we all know how much they cost) to 'convert' it
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Many LGB locos have sockets thru which you can feed battery power (from another wagon) and it will run it (with lights as well). This is a hack to convert LGB locos to battery without using any surgery on the loco. This method will send power thru track though and you can't really have any other locos on same track - but for simple layouts (like my main loop and some sidings) this works pretty well.

I think newer LGB locos are no longer offering these sockets - probably they don't want people to use this hack :think:
 
Mobi said:
Many LGB locos have sockets thru which you can feed battery power (from another wagon) and it will run it (with lights as well). This is a hack to convert LGB locos to battery without using any surgery on the loco. This method will send power thru track though and you can't really have any other locos on same track - but for simple layouts (like my main loop and some sidings) this works pretty well.

I think newer LGB locos are no longer offering these sockets - probably they don't want people to use this hack :think:
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Not sure that is the reason, these days they want you to use a chip to power the lights or they are connected via Ball Bearing wheels to the track. In days of old the connection was to power lights.
 
Mobi said:
I see that few members indicated both track power & battery.

I can understand when someone uses battery only - no need to ensure track conductivity, so less hassle with track cleaning.

But when you are already happy with track power and conductivity is not a problem, then what benefits you get with battery?
Click to expand...
Ah, when I can't be bothered to clean the track I can use battery ;)

But also, I only have track powered locos that have lots of wheels for pickups, including bogie tenders - this is because I am skate free ;). Locos with less wheels go battery :nod:
 
duncan1_9_8_4 said:
ooooof, no. My skills don't go that far. I'm unashamedly an off the shelf person. I'd never get the build quality and paint job.....
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And that's the beauty of this hobby in this scale - you can do what you like and what you're good at - there are plenty of options .................... probably less than there were 15 years ago, but still a fair few.
 
Mobi said:
I see that few members indicated both track power & battery.
I can understand when someone uses battery only - no need to ensure track conductivity, so less hassle with track cleaning.
But when you are already happy with track power and conductivity is not a problem, then what benefits you get with battery?
Click to expand...
You can put a loco straight on to the track and switch it on without having to worry about whether the track is clean.

Because I have only short wheelbase locos and love slow running and shunting, it was a no-brainer. I got fed up with locos stuttering and stalling over uneven track and dead frogs.

Rik
 
Rhinochugger said:
And that's the beauty of this hobby in this scale - you can do what you like and what you're good at - there are plenty of options .................... probably less than there were 15 years ago, but still a fair few.
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While it is true that the range a d availability of large scale product has shrunk from the maistream manufactures and red brick suppliers there has been an explosion from small independent operators, using 3D printing and laser cutting methods. Mostly in 16 mm scale here in the UK. Buy as a kit or pay a premium for an RTR in a lot of cases. And there is battery powered steam outline, not the far more costly live steam equivelent (nothing wrong with them). Use of various "on demand" production technologies are possibly not just the saving of our hobby but creating new growth areas. Ok, evangelical ratings over. Max
 
maxi-model said:
While it is true that the range a d availability of large scale product has shrunk from the maistream manufactures and red brick suppliers there has been an explosion from small independent operators, using 3D printing and laser cutting methods. Mostly in 16 mm scale here in the UK. Buy as a kit or pay a premium for an RTR in a lot of cases. And there is battery powered steam outline, not the far more costly live steam equivelent (nothing wrong with them). Use of various "on demand" production technologies are possibly not just the saving of our hobby but creating new growth areas. Ok, evangelical ratings over. Max
Click to expand...
No rants - quite correct.
 
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