Need advice on getting started on my first railroad

[Anonymous]

Hi,

This is the first time I have posted on this form. So, let me take a moment to introduce myself before I ask a few questions.

I have been interest in garden railroading for a number of years, subscribing to Garden Railways magazine and dreaming of eventually building my own logging era railroad. However, due to working long hours and not really having a good place to set it up, it has not happened. I have been limited to the train under the Christmas tree, and one time setting everything up in the living room and dinning room (I have a great, understand wife). But, that got old and boring very quickly. Plus, the grandkids kept stepping on the track, etc.


Things have changed. I have retired and we have moved to the country with about 3 acres of land with lots of deer and other wildlife in Howell, Michigan. Also, lots of snow! I have 3 locations that I am considering for the railroad. 2 locations, including the preferred one do not have the option of electricity to power the train. The least desirable could have electricity, but it would not be an easy task and would limit the size of the layout.

Current equipment:

· Collection of assorted LGB track and switches.

· Bachmann Shay, Climax, and 2 2-6-0 Moguls. Plus the train that was purchased by wife and real started it all, the Polar Express train set for under the tree.

· Few assorted cars.

· One small power supply that came with the Polar Express train set.

I am strongly leaning toward a battery powered, remote control engine with sound. However, I do not want to use one of my current engines for my first project for the obvious reason that I do not want to screw it up. I am considering using either a Bachmann 2-6-0 Mining Mogul or Annie 4-6-0 which appears to be used frequently for this type of use.

Questions:

· Has anyone converted a Mining Mogul to remote control with battery power and Sierra sound? Or any thoughts you may have on doing that or are any published set of instructions?

· What size/voltage battery packs do I need? Do they have to be removed to charge them? I assume that locating them in the engine is best because of improving the engines traction. I know Garden Railways had series on battery power, but since moving I have not been able to find the magazines. It seems like I spend more time looking for stuff since moving than actually working on a project.

· If my first conversion is successful, can the components be used in another locomotive at a later date?

· If I were to put everything in the tender, could I use that tender with other engines?

· How do you control deer damage to the layout, especially the track?

Thank you for your input.

Chris

[kstrong]

1) It's a tight fit, but it can be done. I did R/C in the tender of the old B'mann 2-4-2, which is identical to the mining mogul's tender. With today's smaller batteries, this will be an easier conversion for you. You can get AA sized rechargable batteries which will run the loco for two or so hours, easily.

2) You'll most likely want 14.4 volts going to the electronics. That's 12 batteries total. You can arrange them in packs which can be charged in place, or put them in standard AA battery holders, which can be removed and recharged separately. I use both methods. I prefer the removable ones, since I can keep 12 extra batteries charged ready to swap out at a moment's notice. At the same time, I seldom run trains long enough in a single operating session where I run the batteries completely down. With quick chargers, you can recharge your trains in less than an hour, anyway.

The mining mogul is so small that I'd keep the batteries in the tender. The fewer wires you have running forward to the loco, the better. On mine, I have 6 wires total - 2 fixed voltage wires going to the headlight, 2 variable voltage wires going to the motor, and 2 which go to the sound cam on the driver axle. This way, I can avail myself of the 6 wires that Bachmann has already run. (I completely gut the existing electronics.)

3) Yes, the components can be moved from one loco to another. The speed at which this can be done is completely dependant on the installation. Are you looking to routinely swap between trains, or are you just pondering retiring old equipment in lieu of new stuff?

4) You could, but it may look funny to have a tiny tender such as that of the mining mogul behind the 4-6-0. If you're looking to have one single rig for multiple locos, consider putting everything in a trailing car that would be pulled immediately behind the tender. This way, you have one car with easy access to the electronics (and most importantly the batteries) that can be plugged into every loco on your roster. The disadvantage, obviously, is that you always have to run this car with your locomotives, making prototype operations a bit more difficult. But, that's how we started with batteries over 20 years ago, before they could come close to fitting in the locomotives. It's amazing how much you can fit in a box car. With that much space available to today's modern batteries, you can probably get run times upwards of 12 hours on a single charge on a box-car sized battery pack.

5) This is going to sound silly, but white plastic grocery bags tied to a stick or tomato trellis. The deer see the white bag flapping in the wind, and think it's the white tail of a deer running away from a threat. When they see that, they stay away. I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard until I tried it myself. My deer problem instantly went away. Can't say the same for the other critters, but at least they don't kink the track; they just ate the fish.

Later,

K

[Anonymous]

There's always the option of "LONG" extention cords. lol

[markperr]

Welcome to the forums and Garden Railroading. I've sent you an e-mail off line. Is the area you're looking into putting your layout in too far to run a permanent power line to? Or are you just set to run batteries.

You can see some pictures of my work in the "Garden Railroads" thread in the general discussions forum. Page 2.

Another great place to get lots of help with going battery power is mylargescale.com. They have forums over there for all things GR related. It truly is the eight hundred pound gorilla of garden railroad websites. Don't get me wrong. This is a great place and I've learned lots here as well. MLS, however, has a several years head start and has developed quite a reputation.

Mark

[Anonymous]

kStrong, thank you for your advice. I ended up ordering the larger engine because the mining mogul that I wanted was out of stock and not available until near the end of next month. I have also used white garbage bags to scare the deer, but I added a twist. I painted large black eyes and mouth on them and then put a large balloon inside. The wind makes it look like a ghost flying around amongst the trees. That did the trick, but now it looks like I forgot to take the Halloween decorations down. Thanks again.

Mark thanks for your input. I will checkout MLS. I sent a reply to your e-mail.


Thanks to all of you for your replies.

Chris

[Anonymous]

bourncher, I had the same fears and doubts as you have had concerning conversion to R/C. However, I opted for total coversion which did away with the original pc boads in the engines. This left me far more room in which to work. I have used all Crest 75mhz radios. Their lithium-ion battery pack is powerful but not as easy to place in small steam profile engines. I used my Bachmann 0-4-0 saddle tank with the battery pack in a scratch built utility tender /work car. The other was in my Bachmann 45 ton side rod swither with room for battery pack and radio with room to spare once I removed all the original electronics. Both run fantastic.

As far as building the railroad itself you can't go wrong with Kalmbach publishing's book on building a garden layout. I used their method, and a few others, to compare how each compares and works. The only maintenance on mine is pulling weeds and an occasional fill of ballast where a heavy rain washout occurs. I have 150ft of track with 1 crossover bridge I cheaply scratchbuilt out of steel angle and 1 1/2 in steel strapping. It doesn't look bad from 6ft or so away. I believe ing doing the best you can with what you have, both maney and material. Hope you have fun and get uup and running.

M Eidson