Smoke is an Achilles heal. Run time drops significantly. It is an alternative, but none of this has to do with how many rails on the track. You can run 2 rail with AC, DC, Battery to rail. I do not think you will get a battery in a 44 tonner as an example. It has its advantage though, but when you look at what Lionel is doing with interactive layout and engine control with automatically triggered features, I am not sure how battery engines fit in, unless you get them down to the size of 9V battery. No room in the engines with out gutting all that. Plus you still have a powered layout for switches and accessories. I do still believe it is a niche system that is perfect for some folks and how they run their trains.
Would you really gut a $1200 to $2000 Lionel or MTH engine to add a battery and control system with simple features. Now you could add an aux car or tender with a battery in it with a tether to power the Legacy or DCS system in the engine. That would be easy and has been done for at least a decade for some operators. G
