hand held throttles

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

i am looking to purchase or build for my non dcc railroad, hand held walk-around throttles. does anyone still sell them or can anyone tell me where to get plans to build them?

2

Gaugemaster offer a DC walkaround throttle that takes a 16v AC power supply, but I’m not sure if they’re available in the USA. If they are, I’d recommend them - I use a Gaugemaster model D for my layout which works very well. You could try ordering one from www.ehattons.com - based in the UK though they’ll ship anywhere, and they’re reliable.

3

Check out http://www.rail-lynx.com/

This is a non DCC wireless system. It works great.

4

I have not used these but saw the add while I ws looking at the fast clocks that they offer.
http://www.thegmlenterprises.com/index.html
I hope that the link works.

5

I use the dallee “yardmaster” throttle…one thing you should know about walk around throttles is that they connect to the AC side of the power pack ONLY…which renders the DC side useless…you can not connect the AC side of a power pack to a walk around throttle and try to use the DC side of the same power pack to another track…it will back feed through the AC causing poor and jerky running of the locomotives will result…If you use a walk around throttle your best bet is to also purchase a 16 v AC power pack specifically for the walk around throttle only…www.dallee.com Chuck

6

I can vouche for these. Before switching to DCC, this is the throttle system I used. Top notch and reasonable price. Give them a hard serious look, you won’t be disappointed.

7

Plans to make a hand-held throttle used to turn up regularly in the hobby press - do a search in the on-line magazine index on the MR website. Peter Thorne book Practical Electronics for Model Railroaders (I think I have the title right) has a couple of nice, simple hand-held throttles with full instructions for building them.

8

Crest Electronics offers a nice, though somewhat costly, wireless walk-around (originally developed and sold by AristoCraft) that works well.

My own experience with Dalle Yardmaster was very negative, a couple of my acquaintances who purchased at about the same time also experienced failure of the unit after about 18 months’ use.