Does anyone know whether a small N scale DC layout could be run using a common 9 volt battery. A model group in South Texas is planning a barbeque get-together in mid-July at a public park in Robstown which is adjacent to Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern (Texas Mexican Rwy) through lines. We can eat barbeque, visit and watch trains. I would like to display and invite members to operate my small 2x3 foot N layout- but there is no electrical power available in the park. I’m wondering if I can operate a small switcher with a maximum of 4 or 5 cars at switching speed using a 9 volt battery. My little voltmeter shows that my switcher runs just fine on 9 volts from my rather basic Bachmann DC train set power pack. I would anticipate needing a DPDT switch for direction and maybe a rheostat for speed control. Anyone have any experience with running N scale from a little battery? Is there anything I ought know about a problem with this? Too little amperage? Too much?
Ken.... Maybe try disconnecting from your power supply...and just holding a 9V battery across the rails or the wires off the power supply...to see if it will work ? ;-) Just a thought. * My concern would be that 'constant' running may overheat the battery. Short runs may do ok.... YMMV
A 9V battery does not have the capacity to run a train for very long. You would be better off using a motorcycle battery or even a car battery. You will need a rheostat for speed control and a switch for direction control. If you had a 12V car battery and an inverter, you could use your power pack. That might be the easiest solution. A group I belong to runs Dead Rail in On30 with great success. Our power is in our tenders or in the cab of a diesel. We run DCC with sound. It's a blast. It is possible to run Dead Rail in N Scale, but the small battery would have to be in a B unit or a boxcar. Not having to clean track or wire a layout is advantageous.
Depending on the physical layout of the area, would it be possible to plug a 110V inverter into someone's vehicle and run an extension cord from that to the power pack? Wouldn't even need a big inverter, as the power pack doesn't draw that much.
David Smith over on Railwire runs his small layout on 8 AA batteries http://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=32315.210 his setup is at the bottom of page 15
I have used a 9 volt when my test track power pack decided to quit. It will work for a short while with a single loco. My test track is almost three times the track of your layout. That said there is no speed control other than lifting the battery off the track entering a turn at speed. So a rheostat is called for. You may want to consider a 12 volt lantern battery. It will last longer but without something in line to control the speed it will be full out until the battery gets low. And one last idea. Maybe a 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter if one can get the vehicle close enough. Still have the issue of speed control though.
A regular 9V won't run it very long,as has been stated.If you have an old rheostat type power pack,you could bypass the transformer,and hook it right to something like an RC car battery pack,motorcycle battery,or even right to your car with an extension cord and alligator clips..
You could try something like a Rokuhan controller. It uses AA batteries. Hit Radio Shack and get a 36 pack cheap. Should work for the afternoon.
Barbeques can get to be somewhat greasy affairs. Do you want to run the risk of people touching your stuff? Oh, and they will touch it. I'd leave it at home.
I live on the PA/NY border, and there's a LOT of Amish up here. Believe it or not, I found one guy that's a pretty serious model railroader. He has a woodworking shop, all powered by a natural gas generator that he gets off his own property, so he's 'legal' in the eyes of the bishop for the adjacent shop. It's a honey, all overhead belt drives, just like the 1800's, converted equipment. But still no electricity in the house. HO layout about 10x14. Benchwork like custom furniture, that's what he makes. So his layout is powered by small 12V tractor batteries (1/4 the size of a car battery), and a boat-style small windmill/generator on the roof above the bedroom layout to recharge them. He has an MRC throttlepack that he tore apart and hotwired to the battery bank, and he's running multiple trains. Has a lot of vintage Tyco stuff, I enjoyed the layout a lot. I've done some mechanism repairs for him and bartered for woodwork. So I think my recommendation would be to use the small 12V rechargeable batteries, take a cheap pack and bypass the transformer, and away you go.... An no electrical plugs for miles and miles.... They're usually pretty withdrawn as a group. But I found him looking in the storefront window at my downtown office (5x9 HO layout there) and talking about Mantua mechanisms to his friends and did a double take.... then was up at his wood shop and there's a BIG framed shot of Strasburg #90 on the wall... yeah, same guy. We're friends now.
Interesting thought. Hmmm. And if there are a few beers, etc, some people will be a bit clumsy as well.
We once set up a small layout on top of a railroad overpass bridge. A nearby neighborhood had two bridges built over the BNSF and UP tracks, two lanes in each direction. To celebrate the opening, they closed off one bridge and had a "Block Party" on top. No power so we used two RC batteries in parallel. Was a beautiful evening under the street lights and we had awesome sound FX and the smell of diesel exhaust every time a train went under us.
You guys need to get out of your n-scale holes and look at other scales more often. In HO, a typical rework is to take a 4axle Kato geep, disconnect one truck and connect up to wireless controller and 9v battery. Powering the loco and wireless radio and loco with 4cars lasts about 20 minutes on a rechargeable 9v. HO is bigger, heavier and the motors draw more, so clearly, if you can buy a commercial repower kit for HO, then of course it will work in N. I do agree that a 12v lantern battery or 2 6volters which is a more common battery would get you longer run time, but I'd say you could expect an hour of run if you are using a quality engine. Just go get a POT at Radioshack for the throttle (hurry before they go bankrupt)
I would rather my trains get a little greasy and maybe even dropped a little (hopefully on grass rather than concrete) than not seen by the folks with whom I share in a 300-mile-wide online sharing group when we get together for the first time.
David K Smith...according to posting on the Railwire...took a small layout to a recent gathering and had it running on batteries...trains and lighting, as I understand it. Check with him for particulars. It is a fantastic build, detailed to the extreme! sincerely... Gary
Go for it! My first Tri-Ang OO/HO gauge layout in england at age 6, used lamp flashlight (torch), batteries and a rheostat. It ran in a circle in the garden. I do not remember how long the batteries lasted.
A straight potentiometer won't last two seconds as a throttle,they're only meant to control transistors.
I built my own walk around connected to the straight dc of a tech II back when I was a teen and it worked fine for years. Pot, dpdt for direction and that was it. Size the pot correctly.
so sorry, do not know why I did not see the earlier post on page 1 about the DKS layout run on batteries. did not mean to duplicate a post on this thread. apologies! Gary
