O gauge R/C conversion (photos & description)

[choochin3]

Thank you Guys,
You have all been most helpful!

Carl T.

[Anonymous]

Dave, This has endless possibilities. When you start selling stock, put me at the top of the list........Tim

[FJ and G]

Tim,

I will! (but unlikely to go into business doing this, as not many would likely leave their basements :-) )

Well, I promise, this is the last test for today as I've a heap of gardening to do.

Just finished preparing my battery car, a Williams semi-scale NYC P&LE boxcar. Everything fits nicely inside and there's even room for a second battery pack.

I make it less messy, I taped the ESC and receiver to the boxcar ceiling, as there's no need to touch those. I left out the screws so that I can quickly pull off the top if I need to charge the battery. The ESC/battery switch (on/off) is located near the door so I can open the door and flip the switch. I cut a small hole in the base of the car to allow the motor wires to exit.

BTW, if you think that this is too much work for R/C and that you'd like to get into G scale; forget it. Folks in G scale also have to do this with their R/C components as trains in G are not sold R/C ready-to-run. Strange but true.

I set up a new test track indoors and still running off the same battery I started with. I discovered that when the ESC is run in reverse, operations are much, much smoother. Reverse doesn't necessarily mean your train is going backwards either. Just turn the loco around and hook the leads up the other way. It appears that the ESC works BEST when it is drawing more amps from the battery. I attribute this to the probability that R/C boat owners usually run their boats flat out and besides, the boats draw way many more amps than the train. Also, slow operations were much improved when the ESC is used in reverse.

BTW, although the ESC is rated at just 12 v max, it can accommodate 30 amps in forward and 20 in reverse.

[FJ and G]

The making of a battery car…

We start with a Weaver scale bulkhead car…seems OK but would be boring to always run behind the locomotive, so…all components are held in place or on top of each other with velcro strips



We do some slicing and dicing, add some HO rails on the sides for supporting stakes…



Then we load with copper pipes; right over the R/C equipment (all below photos taken this weekend).



Notice that it’s raining out, but I had great operating sessions in the rain.



And here’s the combo… (all track in phase 1 is now layed; but there are some ballast washouts with the 10 inches of rain we had)



Note the air hose connection, which really is the R/C wiring from the battery car to locomotive, encased in shrink tube



The following scenes are a 5% spur; operating on wet rails. The train is going in to pick up some heavy diecast tank cars and a gondola loaded with real steel scrap and will back out of the spur.

Incidentally, the locomotive ran over some ballast that washed over the track and actually made it across. Cool stuff!

I ran up and down this spur; did stop and goes etc; testing the train to the limit. This winter, I’ll try some snow plowing but will need to fashion a plow.

Oh, btw, did you notice that I changed out the copper pipes in the bulkhead flatcar for some lumber? See how flexible the bulkhead flatcar battery car is?

Later, I'll fashion other types of loads like bricks, other colorful plastic covering lumber; odd type loads and loads with tarps.

Some operational scenes…










I took this shot just to show how hard it was raining; see the raindrops!



The sun came out, revealing a ballast washout and some weeds growing over the right of way. Will need to send out the tree trimming train equipment



even dead trees are appealing



Here’s a wide-angle view



Make no bones about it. R/C trains are fundelicious

[cnw1995]

Great progress, David. In my humble opinion, R/C is the future of model railroading...

[FJ and G]

Thanks Doug,

I haven't yet met anyone in O scale who has converted to R/C. There are a large number of O gauge R/C operators in the UK who model in 1:19 and 1:16 but none who do 1:48 in R/C. I understand, though that someone did the conversion as you mentioned it was in a recent O scale magazine.

[jefelectric]

David, How's that for prototypical operation? You even get ballast washouts! How about trying a rotary snow plow this winter? I saw a video posted somewhere showing a G gauge rotary blowing real snow. Should work in O as well. Of course you would need another battery car and R/C set to control the plow. If I had more outdoor space I would be tempted to try this. Sounds like a lot of fun.

By the way, what happened to Jim Duda. Haven't seen him post in quite a while.

[FJ and G]

Hi John,

Jim is operating some RC boats and planes with his son. He plans to run his trains when the weather cools in the fall.

[Anonymous]

A little technical note:

The frequencies that should be used for this activity are all in the 75 MHz band and are called channels 61 thru 90. This is a good quiet band.

Use the antenna the way they recommend it. A full-size 1/4 wavelength antenna is 39 inches long, which is too long for most models. Coiling it up or winding it around the inside of a plastic body works (the more area it covers is better). The transmitter power is good enough that a less than ideal antenna will still have plenty of range.

This is pretty good work, David.... I may look into it myself!

[FJ and G]

Hi SFKent,

I've run the train with the wire on the receiver completely coiled and the antenna on the transmitter completely contracted from a couple hundred yards away. Only this weekend have I uncoiled the wire and extended the antenna. But operations seem about the same. Over the months, I'm going to convert my other locomotives, which won't cost me a dime b/c I already invested $100 in the R/C transmitter/receiver, ESC and battery pak (total cost). No more transformers or track cleaning for me. I like the rails as dirty and grimy as possible for the best traction and most realistic look.

[chadw]

This could work indoors with power coming from the rails instead of a battery. Endless possibilities...