Battery power for HO locomotives?

[Joe323]

All valid points I was Just having a little fun with the thread.  After my layout isn't prototypical either

[CNE Runner]

I happened to speak with one of my neighbors, who is an electrical engineer for a Defense Department contractor, about powering (and controlling) my GE 45-Ton locomotive via battery power. He looked at my locomotive and my DCC equipment. His comment on the DCC stuff: "Man...this stuff is ancient history!" Regarding powering the switcher via on board battery power his take was; "Absolutely no problem...I've designed on board power systems for drones that are smaller than this toy. How much money do you want to spend?"

So there you have it: "How much money do you want to spend?" If I were the DOD or Boeing, my little locomotive would be completely divorced from track power. Since I'm not, it will still require wheel and track cleaning for the foreseeable future.

Ray

[railtwister]

The Stanton S-Cab system currently being marketed by NWSL has a support/interest group on Yahoo Groups, check it out at: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/s-cab/> . It uses a marriage of radio control on 2.4ghz and DCC (with an NCE decoder), along with optional Lithium batteries and a through-the-rails charging circuit. While some guys have shoehorned the necessary components into their HOn3  locos, the system is still somewhat limited due to it's size at the present, and can be a real squeeze to fit it all into many smaller HO scale locos such as switchers. That can all change with future development if the market will support it.

The idea of using a computer's Bluetooth technology may be food for thought, if the FCC regulations will allow it.

Bill in FL