wasdavetheroad

My layout is continuous run. The only age of steam express passenger train I can think of that turns around the whole train was the Coronation Scot and apparently they did that to keep the 1st Class coaches away from the engine and its smoke. I am modelling late 50's early 60's and my two express passenger trains are almost fixed formations apart from an occasional change of catering vehicle or sticking a full brake on one end. My mainline long coal train is fixed formation as well, it runs one way loaded and the other empty. The long goods gets occasional wagon changes when I fancy a change. I don't do lots of shunting but setting down/picking up groups of wagons is useful which is why I am experimenting with vehicle mounted uncouplers. As for within the train, you can have single hook or double hook, it does not matter which as long as the end wagons match the loco

Yes, my rolling stock will end up mono directional but I think I will keep the bars on both ends to make pushing wagons more reliable. Done some more work on the Tx27 kit but still a lot of weld er soldering to do. Now I have my modelling mojo back I have got diverted into cleaning the railway room and the track which only needs a vacuum and swift wipe over with some IPA and a lint free cloth

That 240mAh battery appears to have circuitry attached, maybe to prevent discharge below 3V. If it does and you can fit 3 in the throttle that should work. I use UM single cell lipos for my radio controlled locos and one of my chargers works just like you suggest. My charger can handle two x 2S batteries independently and I made up two harnesses so I can charge 4 batteries. Your 3S harness should work too. I guess the charger you are looking at has the 6 1S batteries connected in parallel so they behave as one larger battery for charging. lipo batteries connected in parallel will auto balance but be careful the batteries voltages are not too different as current flow can be high.

I have used the latest low discharge NiMH cells to power some radio control locos. I found 4 x AAA cells gave about 4.8V before boosting the voltage and the capacity was about equivalent to a 700mAh lipo battery. With multiple locos the problem was the charger could only charge 4 batteries at a time but with lipos I can charge up to 10 single cells. For the OP, what make radio throttles are you using? I am surprised that they should demand at least 8.5 V, plus is their power requirement in milliamps? A 9v rechargeable probably has less than 200 mAh capacity. Thinks - can you fit a little 12V voltage booster in the casing? with some attention to the on/off switch because the regulator itself will draw a small amount of power. I have 2 radio control throttles which I converted to use 2 x AAA rechargeable cells with a voltage regulator to give the 3.3V the device needed.

How about looking at Peco code 83

I use emulsion paint, for small jobs the test pots are useful

On your visit to Warley replace the rechargeable batteries with good quality normal ones. I have just bought an Energiser max plus that I tested at 9.6V Alkaline batteries should have more capacity than rechargeables but you only get to use them once. Have a look here https://rightbattery.com/525-9v-energizer-alkaline-battery-tests/ It appears that the batteries are only 8.5V for a short time! I use 9V batteries in my radio control 'throttles' but they run on 3.1V via a built in step down voltage regulator.

I use a fresh scalpel blade in a retractable holder. The non sterile versions are cheap. For rough cutting I use snap off blade knives which I buy in packs from poundland

Traction tyres are OK, as long as you coat them with Bullfrog Snot

Yes, Protocab is expensive compared with Deltang which is not plug and play but has a lot of different products and IMO more options than Protocab. the upcoming BlueRail product looks as if it could be a winner, not the DCC adapter one but the stand alone product which will be part of a well known DCC sound chip range, no idea who though and it will be expensive.

12V motors are no problem. surprisingly I found even my express locos would achieve over scale 60mph hauling 12 Mk1 coaches ( I have setrack curves in the fiddle yard) and that was at 9V via a voltage booster. I think the good haulage capacity of the converted locos is down to having no rail pickups. My Lima class 20's can pull 20 coaches which surprised me, a replacement gear train would be nice though. Backwards compatibility is easy if you leave the rail pickups in place and isolate them.

The chips I use are not plug in but a bit like hard wired DCC chips. My typical receiver is 11x22.5mm and gives 1.3A output at up to 13V. a smaller receiver is 9.6x16mm and gives up to 1A output at 4.2V or up to 0.5A at 8.4V. The voltage regulator (Pololu) is 8.2x13.1mm. The outputs are PWM DC at 16Kh or less if you wish

coating screws with copydex and screwing into foam board? sticks like the proverbial to a blanket. use long thin screws. or do I mean extruded polystyrene?

You never know what will happen just round the corner, meanwhile if it never takes off I won't worry as the system I have works for me. Plus if the manufacturer ceases trading I have a LOT of redundancy in my system. for example I have 14 large passenger locos for mainline use but only 2 mainline express rakes for them to pull. It is almost as easy to move a receiver to a different loco as change the battery. with 4 locos per operating session I actually have 10 'spare' receivers!

Yes, check out BlueRail bluerailtrains.com/about-bluerail/ For my 'umbler requirements I use Deltang stuff which is R/C planes based

Easy, basically each radio control transmitter and receiver has its own unique global identifier code. With the latest developments you can assign locos to a password protected 'local group' from which your operators can select locos (you call the loco what you want), if the loco is in use it is listed but not selectable until released by the current operator. The system I use is simpler but still secure. The locos are bound to handset transmitters, once bound they will only obey that transmitter. This works as only I play trains with my layout

I have 28 steam locos converted all tender except a jinty 0-6-0 and a smokey joe 4-4-0. the classes range from 8x 4-6-2, 6x 4-6-0, 5 x 4-4-0, 3 x 0-6-0 and 4x 2-6-0. I also have a 2-6-4 tank awaiting conversion as it requires the batteries to be integrated into the tank space. I have not got round to it because it is a fiddly job. I also have 14 diesels from class 08 to class 40, all Lima or Hornby, plus 2 DMU, a Hornby class 101 and a Bachmann Derby Lightweight. I find about 12 to 15 locos are all that needed for a full afternoon operating session. none have sound as I listen to the radio when playing trains. anyway all this should really be in the radio control section

There has been no progress for 6 months as I have had two lots of eye surgery and the second one did not turn out as well as I had hoped it would. however that eye has now improved to the point when I can start modelling again, although I will have to live with my clumsy fingers. I am currently slowly building a Deltang TX27 servo control transmitter kit which can control 7 servos and possibly more with some modifications.

Well this protagonist does not! My vision of the future is a system that can work on track or battery power and seamlessly switches between them. Charging the battery from the track should be included which means the battery can be considered a large stay alive with unlimited capacity. This would allow for considerably simpler wiring as there would be no need to wire the fiddly bits of the layout. Track/battery switching has already been demonstrated in BlueRails first board which was too large for most OO locos. There next board should be a lot smaller with more features. What we will end up with is a system that allows you to run your locos on track power, either DC or DCC, battery or a combination of them. Radio control will be the norm and it already demonstrates the capability to have hundreds of locos on your layout if you wish. It might well be using DCC command protocols as well but that does not matter as it is under the hood. As for batteries eventually needing replacements, model railways have running costs like many other things.

See the BlueRail new chip offerings. Actually the 2.4Ghz radio control protocols are sophisticated. They have to be to fly a drone and model rail radio control uses a similar system and the single best thing is NO WIRING, great if you hate wiring

No it does not, it depends on the loco and there most certainly is a market for the correctly priced and specified product. IMO Protocab is too expensive and has a restricted specification.

I converted a smokey joe a couple of years ago!

Ask the owner of Deltang, he has almost hit his maximum output capability because of demand for his products. He also has an offering for large scale steam loco control

I change my batteries every time I use the loco!. On track charging is coming,

My layout has 150mm thick blue extruded polystyrene baseboards. When it was the base for a N scale layout I dug trenches for the wiring. Four years ago I decided to convert to OO scale and filled the trenches in. Now I have no wiring because I adopted radio control and battery power.