Rails, I've been thinking alot more seriously about how wonderful battery operated model RRing could/would be..IF, IF the batteries were small yet held their charge a long time;and the train length (weight/load) didn't much affect this, this to me would be a greatly needed sea change in our hobby...Imagine NO MORE wires to tracks !!! None at all !! Rolling a train on dead rail like the proto type would make it so much more realistic..! Any train goes anywhere !! ...Of course it'd be a radio controlled system..But no more stall-outs or head light flickering due to dirty track ..AND we could have a realistic(seperate) signal system (wired up of course) that we, the crew, would really have to watch out for and heed...Yes ,digital (DCC)control has much of this going for it..But, it's still using electrofied rails...I'm talkin' precision made eguipment like Bachmann, Proto, Athern, et al, too..Not toyish junk..Recharging batteries would be like 'taking on fuel' (more coal, oil, diesel )before going out on road,too..Anybody getting the same 'vibe' as me ?...
Isn't this pretty much done in the larger scales today? It's a great vision for the smaller scales. As the energy density of batteries increases, it's certainly possible.
That is how I ran my 'G' scale layout from 1995 until 2005. Worked great! I used a 24v system and could operate about 3 hours no-stop. Li-Po batteries and other advances would even make it more practical because of their smaller size and greater capacity. But HO is still in the future. I am now in HO DCC because I moved into a new retirement house and my back yard is not large enough for a garden railroad.
I had NiMH batteries in a couple of my G scale engines a few years back. Running times were fine, but I doubt if there is space in many HO units to carry enough battery volume for a decent session, especially by the time you've got the RC receiver and sound unit/speaker in as well. Which highlights problem 2 (and this is the same issue holding back electric cars) - recharging batteries takes way longer than dumping liquid fuel into a tank. So if you run out mid-session you'll probably have to take the engine off. There are workarounds of course, but none are elegant. Personally I think fuel cells are probably the way to go - if they can do it for laptops ....
A Physicist friend of mine said that the difference between a battery and an explosive is how fast you try and take the energy out... :tb-tongue:
That's exactly correct. The highest output batteries are explosively driven. I think that's not what we want here. There's a lot of work being done on ultra-high storage capacitors--they may replace batteries in the near future.
Just a random thought, but would it be possible to have the batteries in boxcars. Better still, in a tanktrain. The connecting wires could be hidden in the fuel hoses. With a battery in each car, you could run forever. A charging setup could be made in a yard. When the batteries run low, just park one set of cars and pull out the the next set. Long passenger cars could have multiple batteries in each. The only drawback I see would be the weight of the batteries. Dave.
Hey guys, thanks for all the responces..Yeah, I fully realize having a really good battery system in say, HO or N or Z is probably still a long time away..But when perfected ,to me ,and now I see to many of you, it IS the way it should ,in the end ,be. In say, 1949 this would have been as much a dream as the internet was in say,1979..Or, it'd been toyish at best..Now,with SO MUCH electronic/chemistry advances due alot to space travel/satellites/medicine/miniaturization/superconductivity, etc. it can't be that far off..Especially if we the modelers begin to ask for this..Because the manufacturers would then start to explore it more in order to be in on the ground floor and thus reap its rewards.. Hey ,here's another idea: we could have a track dedicated solely for recharging a loco..so there'd be no need to lift it off rails!!
Heck, if we're going to take the motive power off of electric rails, why not take it off of electricity all together. I'm sure someone can make a combustion engine that small. Then your REALLY talking proto! Recharging?.. HA! My proto is re-FUELING!
I don't know why you're dreaming about this. My pike is already all live diesel and steam... in N scale. As for DCC... pshaw! I have miniature little men that work as my train crews. Of course, I have to pay them, but at 1:160 the wage of a prototype person, and I can't run the layout for too long with the window closed because of the smoke and exhaust buildup.
Someone made a large scale (#1 IIRC) diesel that was gas powered many years ago. I do remember it was darned expensive It is possible to make small engines, the trouble is that it's one of those things that doesn't scale. You'd end up with a buzzing insect, rather than a throbbing diesel. I think I'd stick with electric power and a good sound system. TBH I don't even go much on live steam - "put" is not a convincing substitute for "CHUFF" If you want refuelling then I say again: fuel cells
That 1:160 scale diesel fuel, special ordered out of the Walthers catalog, is a real wallet-killer, too. The problem is that 1:1 diesel has individual molecules that don't run well in scale size diesel engines.
Further thoughts - Would it be possible to put pick-ups (put-downs?) on the trucks of boxcars containing batteries that would feed the power into the track where the engine could pick it up? This would eliminate wires between cars and engines. Dave.
