Converting Annie 4-4-0 to Battery

[Telleb]

Is it possible to convert an Annie 4-4-0 to battery power and if so, does anyone have plans they could share? Thank you.

[Kevin Strong]

Presuming you mean the 4-6-0, the answer is yes. (The "Spectrum" 4-4-0 is likewise easy to convert.)

Easiest way is to gut the existing electronics. Run 6 wires from loco to tender; two for the motor, two for the headlight, and two for the chuff contact. You can omit the chuff contacts if you opt for magnetic chuff triggers on the tender wheels or if you're using a sound system that allows for motor-controlled chuff. (QSI, Zimo, Soundtraxx DCC decoders, for example.)

Most folks just put everything in the tender for convenience sake. That way it's easy to get to in order to replace the battery when they go flat, or troubleshoot, etc. There's plenty of room in the tender for battery, speaker, and control electronics. If you're a bit more adventurous, you can put the control electronics and speaker in the locomotive boiler. The advantage there is that with the speaker being in the boiler, the sounds will come from the locomotive instead of the tender, which is more realistic. Also, you can wire the motor, chuff trigger, and headlight directly to the controller instead of needing to run wires between the loco and tender. I'd still recommend in this case putting the batteries in the tender. It'd just be two wires (maybe 4 if you want to wire up a back-up light on the tender) running between the loco and tender, which is what exists on the stock loco anyway, so you can use the existing connections, just wire them to different things.

I can get more specific, but I'd need to know which flavor of battery R/C control you're considering. The basic concept for installation is identical for all the various systems, though the exact components will vary depending on what you want to do and control.

Later,

K

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hi Telleb,

I have four Annies which are battery powered the Crest Revolution Radio Control system


Some time back I did an article in Garden Railways (April 2014 issue) magazine on how to do it using the Revolution R/C system. The article has many photos as well.   While the article uses Revolution, most of the info applies to using other systems as well.  The method I used in the article does not even involve dis assembling the loco.  Most of the work is done in the tender.   The original Revolution System is now made by a new company and is readily available again.  

Loco Bill

Forgot to mention it is a two part article.  The second article In June 2014 issue covers adding sound.

[Seaboard Air Line Fan]

I currently have a Deltang-based receiver with a 12v 2000Mah battery in my Annie, along with a MyLocoSounds board, I use a RCS Australia (Deltang-based) transmitter.

It works fine, I replaced the 5mm LED headlight and rear light with 3mm LEDs as the Rx is set up to power 3mm LEDs.

I may swap the Rx for one of the BlueRail Rx boards and try it using my Ipad.

BobD