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Hi Corbs, I generally use single cell (1S) batteries for 009 but have used a two cell (2S) battery for an O-16.5 loco that has a Mehano OO chassis. The two cells are just single cells wired in series to give 7.4v nominal. The single cell batteries are fairly widely available, they are used in model helicopters and the like. Different shapes and sizes are available, with different capacities. You can pick ones that fit your loco. I use these most often http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk/lipo_hyperion.html Although the best selection is from Hobbyking http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/index.asp For the single cells I use this charger http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/batteries/usb-lipo-charger It can be set to 100mA or 500mA. I use it on 100 mA for the smaller cells and its fine. You also need a USB adapter AKA phone charger to power it. For the two cell setup you need a balance charger and I use this one http://robotbirds.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=9_269&products_id=6255 although it charges a bit fast for the smaller cells; you can of course charge the cells separately using the single cell charger. Alternatively you can use a single cell with a voltage multiplier for OO locos as supplied by Popolu, as mentioned by Cornerman, this means you only need a single cell battery but it needs to be bigger as what you gain in voltage you lose in battery duration. It does however do away with the need for balance charging. Hope this helps Frank

Andy's website says: "SPECIAL PURPOSE DCC DECODERS AND APPLICATION SYSTEMS Now that our track product range is almost complete, in the coming year we expect to expand into some original and very advanced Model Railroad Command and Control Applications. These will require several various customized DCC Auxiliary Decoder and Electronic Systems which are already in the design stages." The same website has a photo of one of his trains on the news archive page, as below. Frank

Andy, Is it true that Proto87 is developing DCC products? Frank

Dave, I think there would be a problem with the rectifier. The rectifier would be important as otherwise the voltage would be applied the wrong way round if the loco was the wrong way on the track. However, the charger monitors the voltage on the cell to determine the state of charge, and adjusts the current accordingly. It also uses this to decide when the cell is fully charged and stop the charge. The additional voltage drop across the rectifier would confuse this and at the very least would prevent the cell being fully charged. It might prevent the cell being charged at all. Frank

Andy, I charge in the loco with a small charging socket usually mounted under the loco out of sight. I arrange the switch so it switches the battery between the radio chip ("on") and the socket ("off/charge"). I charge at about 1C and as I don't run the cells fully down it takes less than an hour to charge, sometimes less than half an hour depending on the state of discharge. I charge after I have used the locos and they are ready to go next time. Works for me! Frank

If you charge your LiPo at 2 amps and it is still charging, ie absorbing the charge and storing it, then the energy goes into the chemistry not heat and it does not get hot. If it reaches full charge and so can't absorb any more, then it gets very hot very quickly. So not overheating the battery depends on the charger detecting that the battery is fully charged and switching off in time. If the current is high it has to be very precise and very fast. If the current is low it is not so critical. Moral - charge slowly. Incidentally, many modern locos already have motors that work very well on much less than 12 volts, so the system can run with a single cell or only two cells, not three. This reduces the space required. And they also take much less current as they are more efficient, which again reduces the space required for the battery. Frank

If you want to try battery powered radio control now and don't want to spend a large amount of cash you can equip a loco with the DelTang system for about £40 and the neat hand held transmitters start at about £45 for a single loco controller or £60 for one that will control 12 locos. The receivers are about the same size as DCC chips. The transmitter looks like a train controller not an airplane controller. And it works very well. Frank

Thanks Dave, very useful data on current usage and battery life. Interesting that there are some quite long durations there for what is after all a very small battery. Very encouraging! Frank

I notice Andy has removed the links to the photos above. These are straight links to photos on Photobucket. I do not consider this action either necessary or helpful. Frank

Hi Simon, The Varikit loco has been remotored since the photos were taken. I fitted a motor from Nigel Lawton which I believe is coreless. It runs very well but has not been run for any length of time since the conversion. Frank

Hi Simon, Welcome to radio control! As regards getting it all to fit in, the key issue is fitting the battery in. I have used two sizes of battery, both single cell, both basically rectangular, and both about the same width as the loco I am fitting them in. So they fit across the loco OK. For the Peco tram and also for a Gem varikit I used a 180 mAh battery which was fairly wide, but fitted across the width of the chassis OK; for the other ones based on the Kato 11-103 chassis I used a 130 mAh battery which is about the same width as the chassis so just sits nicely on top of it. This shows the yellow NP diesel with the body off: This shows the battery inside the Varikit body: And this shows the rest of the installation on the chassis: I had to extend the side tanks of this to get the battery in. The radio is behind the motor in the cab. If possible I now mount the switch and charging plug underneath the chassis facing down towards the track, it hides them but they are still accessible. Here is the radio gear fitted into a 3D printed tank body: And here is the finished loco: As regards metal bodies, for the early ones I did worry about shielding and in fact I mounted the radio in the cab and replaced a metal panel in the cab with plastic. However later on I decided this was not a problem and the last loco I built was a brass body with the radio and its own short wire aerial inside and it works fine. Hope this helps. Frank

I wish I had known about this last week. I called at the Penketh shop only to find it closed with not even a sign saying they had re-located. Frank

How about this: http://www.fourdees.co.uk Frank

Hi Rich, I do agree with you that a key advantage of radio control is the feeling it gives you that you are driving the loco not just putting volts on the track. Radio control can give much more realistic movement than other control methods, the main reason being the combination of a good control system directly driving the motor and the battery in the loco which means you are not reliant on contact with the track for power. A result is that you feel comfortable driving at slow and realistic speeds as you do not feel the need to take a run at dodgy bits of track or points. Having said all of that, it does depend on how good the chassis is that it is driving and I think some of our first steps into radio control suffered from the fact that they were trying it out on old, worn chassis. Fitting radio control to a new chassis is much more realistic in terms of the movement achieved and I think we are getting better results now. Frank

Hi Pete, Not having an american layout I have not tried consists but my understanding is as follows: The Deltang system like other radio control systems is based on the "binding" of a loco receiver to a particular transmitter. Once bound the loco will follow the instructions from the transmitter, and this binding is retained if you switch the power off and on again, the loco will only bind to another transmitter if it can't find the one it was bound to originally. If you bind two locos to the same transmitter then they will both respond to that transmitter. Provided the locos are similar and the receivers are programmed in the same way (there are different variants available eg centre off vs zero to full speed on the control knob for example) then they should respond more or less the same to the control movements on the transmitter. So if you set up a consist by hand then it should drive as a consist. I am not aware of any way to "trim" this to balance the load though. However I do not know of a way to set it up initially by driving one loco up to the other and then somehow switching them to "consist" mode, other than using the facility of switching off the second loco with the transmitter and then on again using a magnet, which is only available so far on one receiver type. Hope this helps. Frank

Hi Ian, I know the DelTang system best. See the website http://www.deltang.co.uk/index.htm for details. For this, the answers to your question are 1 You can get various controllers (transmitters). Some (TX20 and TX21) will control single locos although you can transfer them from one loco to another but you have to switch the locos on and off to do it. There is one, the TX 22, which you can switch between up to 12 locos. The ones not selected continue whatever they were doing when you switched away from them. There is another, the TX 23, that will control three locos at the same time but the locos have to be set up specially for this so it is not perhaps the most flexible way. The way the locos respond to the transmitters depends to some extent on the receiver as they have different programming etc. So the 12 loco system "Selecta" only works with receivers programmed to use it. So if you think you might need this, get the receivers that will operate it, they will work with all the transmitters. Also, there is one receiver that you can switch off remotely and switch on using a magnet near the loco. I have not tried this myself. 2 See above for the individual transmitters. There is no real limit to the number of transmitters you can have operating at once since they use sophisticated frequency hopping to avoid interference. You do not need crystals etc. for this system. 3 The main cost per loco is the receiver which is about £30. In addition you need a switch, a charging plug, and a battery or two, and connectors for the battery, which add up to about £10 depending on the battery. In addition you need one or more transmitters which cost £20-25 as kits or £45-60 built, and a battery charger or two which start at less than £10 for one that plugs into a USB socket eg on a computer or phone charger. 4 Some of the transmitters have inertial controls which simulate the inertia of the loco and train. You turn up the speed and the loco accelerated slowly rather than instantly. I personally don't use this mode, but it is there on some of the transmitters. Hope this helps. Frank

I am a newcomer too but have you looked at the 3mm society website - their kits seem to include castings. http://www.3mmsociety.org.uk/Catalogue/3%20mm%20loco%20kits.pdf Not tried any yet though. Frank

Looks very impressive Dave. The Warship certainly has plenty of power. I like the control you have on the Western too, the uncoupling is very precise. What electronics are you using? Frank

Hi David, Interesting to hear you have been thinking about OO scale garden railways, using OO in the garden sparks thoughts of electrical contact problems, batteries will of course get round this but then you start to wonder about radio control, which is fairly common in larger scale garden railways of course. Having to drive the loco through a long tunnel does give an additional problem though! Usually the loco will stop if it loses signal for a second or so as an obvious failsafe. I believe that some of the DelTang receivers can be programmed to give a timeout period of hours rather than seconds though which would get round the problem you have with the tunnel. However I have not tried this myself. If you look at this webpage http://www.deltang.co.uk/rx610-features.htm And scroll down to Cruise Control you will see what I mean. Frank

Hi Andrew, and welcome! I am working on a Smallbrook conversion too, a Hero, although I have a different chassis from the Smokey Joe, as I used one I had already. I would be interested to see how you get on with the Smokey Joe. So far things have gone OK. The main point has been the solid casting that is the boiler. This is the obvious place to put the batteries but needs hollowing out. I opted instead to replace it with some brass tube as I had some the right diameter. A hollow boiler option would be very useful. Otherwise it looks to be fairly straightforward. Good luck, and keep us posted. Frank

There is some activity too on http://ngrm-online.com This is narrow gauge; although mostly 009 there is I think some O-16.5 and other scales. I model mainly 009 and you can see that there but I am putting radio control in a Smallbrook Studio kit at the moment and it seems to fit quite well. As you say, small 0-4-0 locos do not always run reliably and that is why I have tried out radio control and the results are simply stunning! The locos just run when you turn the knob, no tapping the baseboard, no nudging, they just go! Frank

Mike, You may be right, but that is not what the HS2 route engineers tell us. Frank

Pete, The new HS2 chairman announced last week that he wanted to start construction in 2017 at the northern ends ie Manchester and Leeds. Keith, The line is designed for high speed which means the line of the route cannot curve very much. So it cannot avoid communities, employment sites, or environmental sites, but ploughs straight through them. If it was designed for a lower speed it could bend to avoid these. Incidentally, Wilmslow for example will benefit from being near to the HS2 station at Manchester Airport. However it will lose its current direct service to London on the WCML. Given the likely higher costs of HS2 tickets, this may not be seen as an improvement. Frank

I am not arguing that we should not invest in new rail infrastructure. I am arguing that HS2 is the wrong railway. It has been designed for speed above all else. As a result it cannot be routed to avoid impact on people, jobs, communities, and the environment. This maximises the damage it does in what is already a crowded island. Also it does not stop very often, so few places will benefit. And it costs a lot as well. This is exacerbated by the refusal to provide adequate compensation for those affected, or indeed the refusal to provide any at all in most cases. As a result, a lot of the costs will fall disproportionately on a large number of individuals who will not benefit from the line. Frank

HS2 construction will start somewhere (probably Manchester and Leeds) in 2017 and not be finished until 2032. The civil work will start but the line won't be installed until much later. That sounds like years of disruption to me. The HS2 line passes through employment areas or those planned as employment areas thus destroying thousands of jobs. It also destroys the environment. None of this has been included in the costs. The line will not all be in tunnels where it passes through areas of population. There are 500,000 homes within 1 mile of the line (HS2 figures). Those people will lose anything between £30,000 and £200,000 in property values. They will not benefit from HS2 in any way. They will get no compensation. Again, none of this has been included in the costs. Frank