All good info, Bill, but I keep thinking there has to be a way to bypass the RC controls of this loco and direct wire the motor to the batteries just get what I have working, even if it would only go one speed.

Thanks, again, Bill, I'll take a look.  I'm probably moving where there would be less room for outdoor but more for indoor.  Where I live now is a flood plain so neither my yard nor my basement are safe locations.  However as money for hobbies is limited I'll probably stick with HO (famous last words?) and my next basement will have to share space for a workshop and a music room.

Thanks, Bill and Hunt, I spent money on parts that will enhance it esthetically as a ruin on a siding.  Bill, I saw so many helpful posts of yours I did more searching and suspected I had gotten an answer from you for someone else that said what I feared to be true.  I also saw a mention of pictures of your layout but couldn't find a link to that.

I'm new to this forum as I'm normally an HO guy but  my sister found an old large scale set at a garage sale.  It has a 4-6-0 locomotive missing it's battery cover and I failed at getting one as this seems an old D cell battery type.  It has a #90-0100-49 and "operates on 49 MHz" and I guess it's supposed to have a radio controller.  My question is would it work without the RC device just to go around it's tracks (plastic) for my grandson's entertainment?  I imagine I could jerry rig a battery cover with foil to complete the DC circuit, but I don't want to waste much more money on it if I can't.  The part I ordered online that I thought would work is the front boiler cover (which it needed anyway).