What can you tell me about electrical control boxes?

Garden Railroading
1

I currently have about 10 feet of track in place, the Bachmann Black-n-Red comtrol box is inadquate at best…yet it is all I have. I intend to have nearly half an acre of track.

What do I need to start saving for…

What do y’all think of this product…
Aristo Craft
Control Pack Adaptor, 10 Amp

I am a bit ignorant in this are and ask for understanding.

Thanks,
Capt Carrales

2

cappy,

In my humble opinion you should seriously consider on-board RC/battery control. Today’s batteries will give you about 3 hours of continuous running between chargings. If you install the batteries so that they can be easily exchanged, such as in a tender or trailing battery car, you can be up and running again in a few seconds (as long as it takes to change the battery). Battery technology is advancing almost daily and tomorrow’s batteries will last twice as long. With RC you can control each train individually, not have to worry about track cleanliness, and rail joints and block insulation issues are moot. You can even run two locos in tandem and set them to share the load. Add to that the ability of multiple operators being able to take control of any engine and you’ve got real flexibility. Instead of scrubbing the tracks before each operating session, you only need to go and kick the big stuff off the right-of-way and off you go.

Walt

3

The size of your power supply depends more on the trains you want to run than the length of your track.

I got to play with one of Rick Goding’s battery locos one day last fall. I’ll go that way someday when I have an outside for trains[;)]

4

I should very much like to use battery power, albiet I currently lack the skills and knowlegde to make the conversions necessary.

5

Capt Joe, I decided to go battery/RC as well, I’ve already talked to TOC who is a distributer/installer of RCS, Tony Walsham’s Co.
I’m going to have him do the first install and then after that purchase through him. I like the idea of dealing with people I already know.

6

Can you post the website here or sent it to me via e-mail. I am in the process of saving for a locomotive, if I can get a good battery driven one I should like to do so.

Thanks

Capt Carrales

7

Capt here’s TOC’s site http://dnkgoods.home.mindspring.com/index.html

Here’s Tony’s site, he has all the descriptions more like a Catolog.
http://www.rcs-rc.com/

So as your not confused the Loco i talked to TOC about is My Mogul/Annie bash. I’m simply going to send it to him.

8

Joe mate I don’t want to have to go over all this again, the size of your layout has nothing to do with the rating of your power supply.

A power supply is one thing a control box is something else.

What ever you do don’t do it, because things will change and you will have wasted your money. Just find out what your trains need and double it and get a power supply to match it. By the time you use up all your available power you will have changed your mind and you horizons will be higher.

Rgds Ian

9

Thanks mate,

May I ask what you use? COuld you send me a pic of it to my e-mail. I plan to eventually have my backyard on big set of continueous track (a large circl of whose dementions I’ms still debating).

When I has my track set up indoors as a test, my brother made a joke that I would “open her up to see how fast she’d go” and it would crawl. This got me thinking…I really know very little 'bout power and control. What should I get. Battery seems to be the wave of the future, but that is another skill (the conversion to battery) that I just don’t have yet.

10

Hi Joe,
If you are going to have a lot of track mate then you have to figure in track cleaning time. A lot of track then obviously a lot of cleaning, which then splits you down two routes,

  1. That’s a lot of cleaning - how do I do it?
  2. Battery - I don’t need to do it.
    Under no 1 we all have different ways, LGB track loco, pads on broom handles, on your knees etc. My completed circuit will be around 140 feet, for me the upper limits of cleaning by hand.
    Under no 2 it will never be a major factor again, clear the big stuff and away you go. As Ian says, you wil probably want something else in a year or three anyway.
    I have a 5 amp power source with TE, wonderful stuff. If I ever go battery then the track power and TE will have a use doing something else, if it’s only street lamps! Nothing is ever wasted.
    Cheers,
    Kim
    [tup]
11

Cappy,

Kim is absolutely right, if you change your mind later on, most of what you already have can be put to other uses. I intend to construct a simple loop of track to run whatever 1:24 scale stuff I’ve already aquired. This loop will be track powered and automated to run unattended for when I just want to sit back and “watch 'em run”.

What’s prompted this decision is that I’ve fallen in love with the B’mann Consolidation and the new Shay. Both are BIG engines and not compatable with any of the rolling stock and 1:24 scale autos and trucks that I’ve accumulated. So, the 1:24 stuff gets moved to it’s own smaller area, as mentioned before, and I start off fresh on a seperate line with the larger 1:20.3 stuff which will be RC/Battery controlled. RC/Battery will give me much greater flexibility to actually operate the new RR.

Walt

12

What do I use?

I have an Aristo-Craft CRE55401 sitting on top of a frezer tub with a 5amp 24v electronic powersupply inside[;)]

13

ultimately, I plan on going to battery power as well but in th interim, I’m using an Aristo Ultima 10 amp P/S an trackside T/E Controller. As Ian said, a P/S is NOT a controller. You need both. Bridgewerks makes an all in one but they’re quite expensive as is LGB’s Jumbo unit. Aristo’s total package should run you less than $200 and will work well with your layout no matter what size you make it. Eventually though, you’ll have to wrestle with the track cleaning issue. There comes a time when you have to decide whether you want to spend an hour before each run cleaning a thousand feet of track or whether it’s time to move on to battery power. Until then though, the Aristo T/E and Ultima P/S will serve you well.

Mark

14

O.K. then…what is the best way of converting to battery?

15

TOC, Marty, and Tony are you listening?

16

Matt and the Cap’n.

Which is the best way to convert to battery R/C dpeneds on a number of factors.

Perhaps if you told us what you have and what you want to do will help get a sensible answer.
For example:
What sort of locos do you have?
Please say whether or not there will be sound and if so which brand?
Is everything to be onboard the locos or will you start with a trail car and swap it between locos?
How many locos from one TX?
Do you need to be able to MU locos?

As you can see there are all sorts of variables.

17

With lots of track…on board batteries are the way to go.

underworld

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