Well...I have wanted to try something like this for a while......my goal was/is to have a battery powered loco/small swithcher engine to pull a track cleaning apparatus around my layout, so as to make the cleaning part of the outdoor experience easier. The theory is that I can stick the battery operated engine/cleaner on the track for a while before running the regular trains.....and not have to spend as much time cleaning the rails.....preliminary testing showed good results with the cleaner, now I just needed the engine......... I had been working on the track cleaner for a few evenings and weekends, in some free time......when low and behold the latest Garden Railways magazine appears in the mailbox, and on its pages was a project very similar to mine! The article shows how to construct a "box cab" type engine.......not what I wanted, but it did give me the 'nudge' to get my loco started. Couple that with a rainy Saturday last week, and the following is what I have so far.... The pics below show the individual pieces I cut from 1/8 inch ply. The base frame is from 1/4 ply and pine. The tops of the cab and hood are from 1/8 balsa, and the power is a USA Trains motor block. I didnt measure anything out, other than to make it "look about right" with my little miner guy that came with my Porter. I am guessing the scale to be around 1-22nd. Electric power comes from 3 A124 cells.....from a Dewalt power tool pack. I fly Electric model planes, helis, and this is a spare set of 3 cells I didnt use from another project. It provides the right amount of power, LONG run times....( it has run over 2 hours and not needed recharged), and just the right speed. I wired it with a small switch, to be mounted to the base, and activated from beneath the engine...(out of site) and also added a LED headlight. All I could get from the Elec. store was an orange color......so untill I find a white one, it will have to do. This engine could be made to operate with radio control, quite easily, but for now, I dont have a desire to do so. I has its purpose, and doesnt need to be too fancy.
Assembly Pics Here are a few pics after some basic assembly. The hood and cab will be held on with wood screws..... I will probably dress up the cab and hood with some small trim pieces.....maybe some window sills, etc. Not sure what to do yet on the smoke stack/exhaust, etc. I will compare to my other USA 44 tonner, and some pics online to see what I want to add. I will rob some brass handrail from an old Bachman engine for railings, steps. Plus, it will be primed and painted. I just need another rainy day with nothing else to do to get some more done!! lol So far, this has been a fun project.......and the USA motor block makes the power EASY to do. I should also mention, that I removed all the electrical pick ups from the motor blocks, ie, slider shoes, and internal wire to axle pick ups. I saved them, but doubt I could get them back together to reuse them. They would, though, be good spares for my other USA locos. Regards, Darryl
Like to see your garden railway sometime. PM me when it's ready for the season. Great idea and good workmanship on the track cleaner.
Nice looking project... I'm curious, though... why does it need to be battery-powered? I'm not familiar with garden railroads (other than looking at them and saying "wow!") - do the tracks get so dirty that you can't get power from them? Or is there some conflict between the cleaning method and having powered rails (using steel wool??)?
Battery power Twin Dad, The brass tracks for outdoor do get some 'tarnish' and dirt on them.....that over time, can build up and cause some electrical pickup issues. Plus, bird poo, leaves, etc, can get in the way. The way I typically operate my trains, is to go out and clean the track with a scouring pad on a swifter mob head in the late afternoon, then get the trains out and run in the evenings. That can take just a one pass for light dirt, to a 3 pass cleaning if I havent run for a few weeks. I wanted to be able to put a battery powered apparatus on the track, (no track power required) and let it run for a while to clean things up.....then I dont have to spend as much time cleaning it myself.................yes,.......Im lazy. Plus, this gives me the added benifit of being able to run a simple train, without getting my electrical power pack out and all, If I want. Thats all........just lazy. It doesnt take too much to clean it.....I just like to tinker, and have a train running.......and it helps to have a purpose for it. D
Finishing Up Had a few more rainy days and evenings, and was able to put some more work into the little work engine. The first shots are of the bare primer, and then some finished shots. I still need to come up with some custom decals/lettering for it, but for now, it will just have to do like this. I stole some parts from an old loco, and the Driver from my Porter. The colors are to match up with my passenger cars.....and the theory will be to sell Train Rides on the railroad ..........at least in small scale. Now, just need some good weather to run it.......... D
Nice job, did you etch the grille and doors in yourself with a carving knife, they look good. This loco you made reminds of the Plymouth switcher that Strasburg has at thier facility. They use it to give caboose rides. Me and my kid got to ride in the top (inside top of a bobber caboose), of course I had to help her up there, but it was a great experience for sure.
People choose battery power for certian reasons in G scale. One, it gives a person the freedom to run it on any layout without having to worry about what type of transformer power is being used, this is great for club meets. Two, most likely in dmiller's case, he can run this loco on his layout anywherer without having to isolate the track power and running extra wires to control it on the track he wants to run it on. You don't want to use steel wool on G scale (gauge #1) brass track, you would want to use a scotch brite pad instead.
Slightly OT...In my H0 scale club we have a member who runs engines on battery power for all the advantages stated above. It is a small steamer and will run well for about 1.5 hours on radio control. Without track power, I am not sure how you would do block detection or signals.
Switcher EMD, The Grille is made of little slats of balsa.....glued at an angle. Kinda freehanded that one, and got lucky they look straight! lol.... I was going to use some fine window mesh/screen material, but it was too large of mesh to look right. The sides are just thin balsa strips over the ply. Im lucky to have all this stuff laying around from the model airplanes....and the years of experience building them. I still need to come up with some Horns for the top of the cab......Maybe some whittled down golf tees.... Yes, the Battery power for this thing will serve two purposes u mentioned....I will be able to run this thing with some type of cars with no regard to track power, and to help clean the track. Those Scotch Brites are WONDERFULL!!!! We got close to 5 INCHES of rain last night ALONE!!!!!!! It will be several days before I can get back to working on the garden........we have just been inundated lately. Hopefully, Ill be able to run the engine this weekend, and maybe post a few pics. D
Thanks for the answers on battery power. That makes lots of sense. The loco is looking good. I look forward to seeing some pics of it running!
Sterling has had it's fair share of rain this spring so now it can go someplace else. PLEASE. Nice work on the project. Look forward to stopping by for a look see. Soon as thing calm down. LOL
dmiller, are you just using a simple on and off switch for this locomotive? I don't remember seeing you install any R/C type of equipment on this one. What type of battery and what volts or amps is it rated for? How did you end up controlling the speed if there is no R/C controls? By the way, the garden rairoad does look good.
Good questions EMD, Good questions, Ill try to give some good answers!!!! I am using just a simple on / off switch......there is a small rod with a 'T' handle on it on the front left of the frame. The actual switch is mounted underneath, out of sight, and the rod just threads into a hole in the switch. I did not mount any remote type controls on this one........but I could down the road. If I did/do.....they will go into a trailing car.....or on the cleaning car. I have several older speed controls from the brushed motor r/c stuff I have (from airplanes) that will work well.....but only in forward.....rc Plane speed controls dont have reverse. I have a couple older radios that would work fine for the proportional control......if that is what I want down the road. Those of you wanting to use r/c......it would be a great time, as the lower end radios are getting to be real cheap at swap meets in the winters. However.....for now.......I just guaged (ie guessed) that a 3 cell A123 cell pack would give a good normal speed for the engine......and , it does. Not too fast....not too slow. Just a good pace. A123 cells are the same as in a Dewalt rechargable drill pack, or similar. They are metal cans, about twice the lenght of a sub c nicad/nimh......and are of 2200 mah capacity.....and 3.6+/- volts nominal each. The pack is a 3 cell, in series pack.....giving about 11.0 volts or so. They can easily handle 20-30 amps or more.....( sometimes the airplanes draw way over that)......and will run this little thing for several hours before recharging. Obviously, the little motors we use are not using or needing that much amperage.......its just available from the batteries.... I also had some nicads and nimh batteries, but none with the capcity I wanted to use. Plus...this a123 pack had just been sitting unused.....so it needed a pupose. Hope this helps....... D
dmiller, thanx for the info. I'm totally new to battery power and understood that old battery technology such as nicad didn't allow alot of run time on USA Trains motors. I did hear of the A123 battery pack you have mention and did not know it contained that kinda power. It seems to have a kick and with the rating it has, it's no wonder you can run for hours. My transformers peak out at 20 amps and even with the long trains I run and multiple lash ups, I never reached 20 amps, but the story is different in the voltage department. I average around 12 to 13 volts when I run my trains in long strings, but I'm sure my switcher could run on the A123 battery pack. Is the A123 battery a lithium ion type battery? I'm still trying to catch up on all of this new battery technology.
Battery power EMD, The battery technology has progressed a long way in the past few years.......I have my experience from the R/C aircraft area.....where we have gone from using the nicads, to nimh, to Lipo(lithium polymer) batteries........ There are good and bad from each.....Nicads and nimh could still be used for our trains.......there are cells that are over 3000 mah, and can easily handle over 70 amps draw!!!! I have one plane that uses a 10 cell pack, that draws around 80 amps for short bursts.....! These cells would work, but would require a 10-12 cell pack to get the voltage I am getting from a 3 cell A123 pack....and would have to be in a trailing car. Our trains dont draw much, at least to me.........most of them will pull less than 5 amps......ive never put a meter on mine to really see...but the little can motors in most of these trains just dont draw that much....(compared to what I am used to with airplanes.) The lipo batteries.....( I will just call them lipo...but they can be lithium polymer-lipo, or lithium ion, lion, or the a123 cells, which are LiFe, ) have some great things for us, but also some not so great...... First....the good.........all the lithium batts. have great energy density.....ie, lots of power for light weight........every cell phone, laptop, and hand held device uses these batteries. They are all 3.6 volts per cell...give or take, so we dont need to have a bunch of cells to make a good voltage......and they have increased amp draw capabilities over the years, to be able to handle some very high draws, rivaling the traditional nicad and nimh batts. The bad part is, they require a special charger, for lithium batteries...and have to be handled properly. The Lipo, and Lion batts are in plastic packs....or foil...and if punctured, can short and start a fire! Thats why most conusmer lithiums are in plastic cases...(ie, cell phone, computers, etc.) They cant be over charged, or over discharged, or discharged at too high an amp draw or they will be damaged..and can cause some fire issues if this happens. The A123 batts are a better choice, as they have the energy density.....but are in hard metal cans, and dont have the bad tendencies the lipo/lion cells do, ie, they handle abuse better. One can discharge them below 3 volts per cell......with no harm......they can handle over charging better, and the amp draw isnt as critical. They still need their own charger, but are easily worked with. The biggest draw back at this time is that, to my knowlege, only come in 2 sizes, ones that are about the diameter of sub C nicads/nimh cells, but twice as long,(2200mah) and ones that are about the size of AA batts, but twice as long.(1100mah, i think) Dewalt drill packs are the best source so far for the larger ones.......not sure where to get the smaller ones, I havent had the chance or need to use them. I know, this has been a bunch of info.......and I am not an expert by ANY means!!! I just have some practical experience with them..(with model aircraft.....)..and am glad to share what I know. I can give some references to other web sites to anyone who would like them....which would have way more info than I can give here. Just send me a personal message, and I can get back to them. If there is enough interest....maybe we should start a dedicated thread to the battery topic, hopefully others with actual train / battery power knowlege would chime in??? Darryl
