Has any one fitted a speed control to a Lionel battery “G” scale locomotive.
Every “G” scale layout should have a battery loco for track cleaning ect or for those cannot be bothered to hook up the transformer moments.
Even if I could have found an LGB one the price would probably have been over the top so Lionel seemed like the next best choice at least they have a good reputation unlike some of the cheap and nasties.
Any way having obtained one I would like to fit a speed control of some sort any thoughts or have you done it and if so How[?].
Unless you intend operating the battery loco as an entity on its own, rather than just for track cleaning, why not mount a battery pack and R/C control system in a trail car to start with?
SWMBO is in the wars again she banged her leg and it blew up like a balloon something to do with her medical condition[:(]
Not actual sure which loco it is its red in a set with a green tender (which holds the batteries) and red coloured caboose marked up as D&RGW the loco looks kind of wild west and toy like which I understand a lot of the early wild west locos did.
The initial thought is to try and put a speed control on the loco so it has to driven a bit like a manual steam loco with out the wait for the water to boil.
I am open to all ideas at this stage as it is intended that it be independent from track power and able to run anywhere provided the bateries are charged up
Hi John, I pretty sure your ‘Lionel’ engine was made by and is the same as the Scientific loco I have. The trouble with these is that almost all of the real weight is in the tender with the batteries, so its pulling capacity is very limited. I even added adhesive tire weights to the inside of the boiler, that helped a bit.
I dont know about adding a speed control, with the battery power the amount of voltage usable might be limited. Also theres very little spare room ‘under the hood’ so to speak. Wish I could be more help. Sorry.
I’m not the most gentile on electronics, but you should be able to rip out the volume control(a massive resister) off an old house speaker, patch that to the positive line, maby disguise the thing as a steam dome w/the plastic dome as the knob to controal the speed. All packaged inside the loco and one would never know.
John - Sounds like you might be interested in my “One-Touch Critter Control”. It is a manual hands-on speed control for battery power. Low cost, and east to use. goto www.GScaleGraphics.net under electronics or e-mail me.
I have a Scientific Toys G-scale Lionel too. It’s the Chritmas version (I think it was made in the late '90’s). Anyway, I modified the stack into a ballon stack and changed the wheel arrangement from a 2-6-0 mogul, to an 0-6-0,(I just took off the pilot wheels), and it runs very good and it doesn’t even have the drive wheel rubbers so that the loco can make better contact.