LionChief/LC+ remote range?

The only one I tested will work from anywhere in the house so at least 40-feet away and through walls.  And it worked from at least sixty feet and a bit more i'd estimate.  I had my wife go out in the backyard, the train layout is on the third floor, but the way our lot os sloped, she has out in back and at about second floor level, but I think and she was about fifty - sixty feet total distance and through one outside wall when she operated the train while I watched.  If ran fine.  If she walked to the back of the property, about fifty feet of so on, it did not work. 

I'll note as I often do that range and signal strength drop as the batteries near the end of their lives.  I've had only a few cases where I wore out the remote's batteries before changing them (they seem to last forever) but when they go the loco starts losing attention to the signal on the out side of the layout (about 20-22 feet away).  Fresh batteries fix the problem. 

Funny, I just tried this the other day with my LC+ Pacific and found the results to be similar to what Lee posted above.  I've got a fairly good sized finished basement and was able to activate the loco from the remote through walls from 30-40 feet. 

Haven't tried it from outside yet!

Last December one of the fire companies that I belong to had their Christmas party. I was asked if I could bring some trains over so the kids could watch them, which I agreed to. A few years ago I did that, but this time I took 3 remote RTR sets over a Thomas Christmas, Polar Express and the Victorian Christmas remote sets. This time I set all 3 sets up on the floor in a corner of the hall and set some tables up on their sides so the kids could not get to them. Well I gave the kids the remotes and they had a ball running them. The kids ranged from 3 to 16 years old. They played with them for around 3 hours and from up to 50' away from them with no problems. The one fact that really surprised me was that there was not one derailment or problem for the whole 3 hours as I just set back and watched them. They were the hit of the day.

Seems like 30-40 feet with obstructions is the consensus, maybe twice that in open air.  Sounds about right to me.  Is this NOT enough range for anyone?   Thanks, all, for the input.  

Of course, the other thing to think about is that you are operating three or four and are twenty-five feet across the trainroom holding the wrong remote when you realize you need to adjust a trains speed soon.  then its a matter if you are faster than the train!

I have a small layout that I have taken to a couple of shows that I run an LC Thomas on (I also have a LC+ Pennsy RS-3 on order) and this thread has me think of a potential issue with the LC and LC+ locomotives at shows that I haven't thought of before.

      With the fairly long range of these remotes, it is possible that there could be "cross-talk" issues with other persons running the same locomotive at the same show. For instance, I know of at least one other person running an LC Thomas on his layout at some of my local shows (we haven't both shown at the same show, yet). I might need to pay attention to the possibility of their remote affecting my locomotive (or vice-versa).

  Hmmm.

Derek

Derek, 

I am only going on theory here, but I don't think it will be a problem unless you are very close, or if at any point the other person's remote is closer to your loco than yours is.  These remotes, from what I can tell, send out (practically) constant commands when they are on, and your remote will over power another signal as long as they are not TOO close.  Again, this is just theory.  

My basement is a walkout basement and I walked outside while running my LC+ engine. I found outside the range wasn't very good and response suffered. I found the whistle and bell to lag or stick on/off, control to be somewhat lacking, etc. May have been the batteries or the brick walls. 

The National Capital Trackers set up twice each year at the College Park Aviation Museum. While I was not there at the time, one member went to the opposite end of the museum from the layout, maybe 100 - 140 yards at the most. It is one large open room and reported flawless operation.