battery powered engines

[Dick B]

 I have established a garden rail with aristocraft/usa brass track.  I am considering also running battery operated engines along with electric.  What companies manufacture battery powered diesel locomotives.  Any help would be appreciated

 

Dick

[rpc7271]

No one. If you want a battery powered loco you have to convert it yourself or pay someone else to do it. Some Aristocarft locos are equiped with battery plugs to plug in a battery car but you still need some way to control it. I recommend an Aristocraft loco with the QSI decoder, an QSI GWire receiver and an NCE transmitter. The other alternative is the new Aristocraft Revolution Train Engineer system but I haven't used it yet. The Aristo GP4-0 and Dash-9 44CW are eqiped with battery cables and sockets for the decoders. I think the newew FA-1s are also.

[calenelson]

 There are further alternatives avail to those who seek battery control, either with Remote or Manual control...

 we use the RCS brand of control (RCS and EVO, both with GREAT results), made in AU by Tony Walshman his web site is here:

http://rcs-rc.com/

the RCS throttles are contolled by a small hand-held transmitter, he also produces a throttle that can be used with RC Car type 2 stick transmitters, they are sold under the EVO brand here:

http://evo-rc.net/

 Tony has yet another control, brand new, Beltrol, catering to those who prefer the 2.4 systems avail, you can find it here:

http://www.beltrol-rc.com/

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I purchase all of my gear from Dave at NWRCS, here is his site:

http://dnkgoods.home.mindspring.com/

 I usually call for any needs I have, the number is listed there on the site.

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Del Tapparo also manufactures Manual and Remote systems in addition to his G Scale Graphics.

His site is here:

 http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/DelTapparo/

I've not used Del's gear, but his letters are outstanding.

 

Hope this helps, if you are interested make sure you look into these tutorials from RCS.

 Good Luck!

 cale

[kstrong]

Most of Aristo's diesels have a "plug-and-play" socket in them which makes it very easy to install Aristo's "Revolution" control or RCS's plug-and-play version of their controller. I believe QSI's "Magnum" DCC-based throttle/sound system will plug directly in, too, which you can use in conjunction with Airwire or NEC's controller.

To this point, no other diesel manufacturers include such a socket. That's not to say installing any of those systems in non-socket locos is all that difficult, but if you're looking for "dirt simple," it doesn't get too much simpler than availing yourself of the included socket and the various compatible controllers.

Later,

K

[Great Western]

Hi Dick,

I have a small backyard railroad which is a single line with sidings and spurs.  I have kept things simple as I had no wish to tinker with the innerds of my locos by making additions.

I run 3 Aristo RS3 locos, each with the "plug and play" sockets mentioned by Kevin, plus two Aristo Center Cabs** and two Bachmann "Annies" which do not so only the Aristo RS3 locos at present can be operated by battery.

For simple operation I chose the Aristo 27Mhz. Train Engineer (still available) with one receiver to run track power and another receiver which is installed into a battery car# for the occasions when I want to run battery power.

There seems a lot of choice in the USA so I guess it depends on how large a system you will have and how involved you will want it to be.

 #  The TE Rx can easily be fitted into a stock or boxcar, open gondola or coal hopper.  I suggest you look at this web site if you want ideas,:

http://ovgrs.editme.com/BPIndex

**  Aristo say that the newer production of their Center Cabs will have the "P&P" feature.

[rpc7271]

With the QSI decoders the "Aristo" line just plugs into the pnp board. The "Magnum" line is the Aristo line with the Magnum adapter board included. You can also order the Magnum board separately if you want to. I intend to convert all of my locos to QSI sound so I took and old U25 B base and a magnum board and made up a "test" loco so I could program and test everything before I wire up a loco. QSI is supposed to be coming out with an adapter/replacement board for the USA Trains locos but they have been developing it for a year or so without any word on its projected production date.

[Anonymous]

I think your question was more of who makes battery locos, rather than how do you convert. Unfortunately, we're being outdone by the Brits in this category as far as small locos go.

http://www.roundhouse-eng.com/

http://www.ip-engineering.co.uk/acatalog/loco_kits.html

I purchased an IP railbus in January and am still assembling it. I'm also still assembling my Roundhouse Lady Anne, but live steam is another story altogether.

An alternative to this is a ramped-up RC sized fuel cell.

http://horizonfuelcell.com/hobby_rc.htm

Which looks interesting. I enquired with them about a year ago. They said their basic RC set up was $1,500. But in my world, that's another steamer.

Best of luck.

~S