Dead Rail Trains

Vinnie, try Wal-mart.  I've never had trouble finding rechargeable NiMH AAAs, which I use in my 4 DCS remotes

I went dead rail several years ago after growing tired of dealing with rail joints not conducting on my old ground level garden railway.  I have since gone elevated but remain dead rail as I run live steam locomotives as well.  They tend to leave the track oily/dirty.  I have several locomotives converted to onboard battery power, but I do not put RC control, just an on/off/on DPDT toggle switch to give me a center off and foward/reverse control.  I use either a 7.2 or 8.4 Nimh battery that also works in my RC cars.  I get 3-5 hour run times normally.  So far I have a Kalamazoo 4-4-0, Lionel Large Scale 0-4-0, Markin Maxi UP F7, LGB Eurovapor 0-6-2 and a LGB Euro trolley converted.  An old Bachmann Big Hauler, the first red one that ran on track power awaits an Annie chassis and battery conversion.  Its nice to just walk around to check for sticks and leaves on the rail, then set the train on its way.  Many times I do this while waiting for steam to raise.  Only wiring on my layout is for the building, street and turnout lights.   My indoor overhead loop is wired for track power to test locomotives when I need to.      Mike

Mike, that sounds like a good railroad. Also, your post presents a good case for dead rails.

overlandflyer posted:

Vincent Massi posted:

One article had discussed the problem of recharging the batteries, ...

why not just power the track so the batteries can be recharging while you run the train...

...wait a second... never mind.

Actually, I don't think you're off the mark. You set up a staging area with live tracks to charge the batteries. You'd have to install diodes into the locomotives (or tenders) to prevent current from leaking into the tracks from the equipment, but it's doable (at least in theory).

I got 10 years of track powered operation from my LGB track. But the last couple years I had to take up track, clean and recrimp rail joiners to restore smooth operation.  Corrosion is the issue you face long term with track powered trains outdoors.  This is where battery power comes in to play.  How you control is up to the owner, Blue tooth, 2.4ghz RC or what I do, a simple DPDT toggle switch, giving me foward, center off, reverse control.  I already had the common 6 and 7 cell Nimh batteries on hand for my RC cars.  I found the voltage was just right for most all models to give a nice sedate speed, not to slow yet not to fast.  Duration was good and recharge time is fast.  When winter comes and my wife and I start running RC at the indoor car tracks, I remove a couple of the batteries to suppliment our ones that are not in the trains.   Many live steam locos do not have insulated wheels, so going dead rail allows both to be on the railway at the same time.   My batteries remain in the locomotives, each one has a charging port installed near the toggle switch.  I just lay the engine on its side and plug it into the charger.  Normal recharge time is 30-40min at the most.  But with several engines charged up, I never run out of batteries and if I do, fire up one of the steamers!! 

 Many years ago, live steam and clockwork(wind up) trains were the norm in the garden, and indoors.  This was very true in the UK and Europe, where as here in the USA most had electric power in their homes when toy trains became the rage.  Not so much in the UK and Europe when toy trains really got going.   Clockwork is the original dead rail system, along with tinplate live steam(which you can find in both O and gauge 1).  Railway design was imporant, with the track leaving the station going slightly uphill to tame the initial surge of spring driven power, then slightly downhill as the train arrives at the next station to maximize the last bit of power from the spring.  The number of turns of the key was very imporant.  To little and the train stalls on the main line, to much as the train slams to a halt, throwing the passengers on the floor when it hits the trip on the track that stops the train at the station.   It was very much an operation, much as we "operate" in the smaller scales.