Electrical Question

[murrah]

Dennis, thanks that's exactly what I needed to hear.  I'm going to at least try this to avoid the hastle of running power all the way out there.   

[DennisB]

I have been using a  Noma lead acid battery for the last 4 years.. Bought it as a backup for the sump pump. Works great outdoors. Has 4 plugs and will run 2 engines and a radio for 7 hours. I find it very safe, especially when children visit. No extension cords to trip over and also allows me to run power tools anywhere in the yard. Regards, Dennis.

[murrah]

Well, like I said, I'm chicken to try and tamper with my locomotives just yet, although battery power was initially where I wanted to go and I WILL eventually get there, but I have recently realized that relatives and friends that might want to run their trains on my layout too and was weighing my options.  I also wonder if using one of those for powering everything would work, such as landscape lights and maybe a waterfall pump.  Just wondering if anyone else has tried it.  Seems it would be fairly simple just to carry the thing over there, plug it in, play, and then when I'm done, just carry it back to the house and re-charge it!  My main concerns is the output and if it might be harmful to the engines and motherboards.

[cabbage]

Instead of all the flim flam with the power pack -why not just simply install the batteries in your locomotives? That way it will not matter how far away you layout is from the nearest AC outlet -it will still run. All of my electric powered locos have on board batteries -and this is how I began -with my layout 90 feet from the house and 30 feet lower than the back doorstep.... regards ralph

[mrdeere]

I have used a marine AGM battery one time when we lost power and guest were coming. I just tied into the train engineer receiver were the power pack normally hooks up and I ran for about 4 hours on two loops. mrdeere

[murrah]

Has anyone used on of those portable power packs made by Diehard etc. to power their layout?  The ones that are used for jumping cars, emergency power, etc?  Reading the reviews on one it said it could run a television for 20 hours on one charge.  I'm really considering that as my layout is over 100 feet from the nearest outlet.  Any concerns or comments would be appreciated.  Got my first 3 locos and for some reason am chicken to try to convert to battery and R/C, would like to see them run.