Garden Railway Forum

I would like to know if the “Bertie” is able to be converted to R/C please.

Loco-Boxes (mail@loco-boxes.co.uk) are offering to convert your Bertie to R/C on regulator only for GBP165.
Details on page 64 of the latest SMT.

Thanks Graham, i haven’t bought it yet, but that is a great price...do they sell the “Bertie” has well.

Rod, as you already have Deltang equipment why pay extra for another Tx/Rx when you can add one yourself to Bertie?

You can use your existing Tx and just buy a Rx102:

http://www.rctrains.co.uk/Rx102.htm

It really is not hard to add a servo to the regulator.

Thanks Tom, never entered my head to get one of the Rx102’s and at £12 from RC trains, there may be cheaper suppliers, plus getting the servo’s and a little bit of help (Hinting) would be some what cheaper and leave some more money for something else i could convert wouldn’t it.

Thanks again Tom.

FWLR wrote: Thu Aug 31, 2017 10:00 am Thanks Graham, i haven’t bought it yet, but that is a great price...do they sell the “Bertie” has well.

Yes they sell the loco with R/C fitted GBP 793

Two things to consider when R/C'ing a Bertie.

1. It is fitted with slip eccentric valve gear so you can only radio control the regulator, and need the out of scale human hand intervention when requiring a change of direction.

2. Roundhouse use 2 different regulator controls, one for manual control & one for radio control. Dependant on your radio control set up you will likely find controlling a manual regulator with radio control can lead to insufficient steam with a heavy train or steep gradients. I have a 2nd hand kit built Katie which has always been rather docile with the radio control. On checking further I've found it is fitted with a manual regulator (as Roundhouse state there is no external difference between the two regulators), and I've partly compensated for that by increasing the servo travel using that option on the transmitter.

Roundhouse sell a radio control hardware kit for the Bertie which includes the radio control regulator - http://www.roundhouse-eng.com/pdf/sammierc.pdf

Chris Bird has fitted R/C to a Bertie without relying on a tender to house the receiver/battery pack/switch - http://www.gardenrailwayclub.com/locos/ ... use-bertie

Chris Cairns

With a bit of lateral thinking and the use of Deltang based r/c gear it is possible to almost completely hide the r/c installation in a Bertie.

https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 097#p99097

The Roundhouse r/c regulator has a two start thread, so it opens faster It also has an o-ring instead of a solid conical tip, so it doesn't require as much force from the servo to close off the steam completely.

Fitting anything to the cab roof was a non-starter in this loco, as it doesn't have standard Bertie bodywork and the safety valve is mounted on top of the regulator. I also dislike a rats nest of cables, so everything had to be able to be tucked away.

After posting the photos, I managed to get some black paint to stick to the servo arm and it isn't anything like as obvious now.

Regards,
Graeme

GTB wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2017 3:07 pm With a bit of lateral thinking and the use of Deltang based r/c gear it is possible to almost completely hide the r/c installation in a Bertie.
https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 097#p99097

Ingenious, nice job!

One question: Is that chassis 45mm or 32mm? If it is 45mm, would the battery pack fit on a 32mm chassis?

TonyW wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2017 3:13 pm One question: Is that chassis 45mm or 32mm? If it is 45mm, would the battery pack fit on a 32mm chassis?

It's a 45mm chassis...........

I'm fairly sure four AAA Eneloops cells wouldn't fit between the frames of a 32mm loco in a standard battery holder.

Do you have a 32mm Bertie handy, to measure the distance between the frames?

AAA cells are nominally 10mm in dia. so if there is 21mm between the frames, 4 x AAA Eneloops in a thin shrink film pack might just squeeze in. Someone like Strikalite could probably make something like that up.

The only way I can think of using Eneloops (or any other NiMH type) if there isn't 21mm available between the frames, would be to split the battery pack into two parts, with the AAA cells mounted in pairs one above the other. One pair would fit easily under the cab, but the other one would have to be further forward between the axles.

I don't like Li rechargeable cell technology, so have no direct experience of using them. However, a couple of AA size 14500 Li-ion cells would physically fit under the cab mounted one above the other and they have the same current capacity as AAA Eneloops. Li-ion cells would give a higher voltage for the servos, so more torque, but would need a protection circuit to be added and different charging arrangements. A couple of AAA size 10440 Li-ion cells would be easier to fit, but they have only about half the current capacity of AAA Eneloops.

Regards,
Graeme

GTB wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2017 6:23 pmDo you have a 32mm Bertie handy, to measure the distance between the frames?

I don't, but I did fit r/c to a 45mm one for a customer a while ago.

Occurred to me then (although I couldn't try it) that 4 x AAAs packed as a parallelogram instead of square (when looked at end on) might fit a 32mm one.

Might be worth having a look at strikalite or similar companies as there are some odd sized rechargeable batteries available that are not lithium. Some of the Pearce engines had packs that were built up of cells that stood only three quarters of an inch high.

I can recommend:

http://www.componentshop.co.uk

They will make what battery pack they don't stock.

TonyW wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:03 pm Occurred to me then (although I couldn't try it) that 4 x AAAs packed as a parallelogram instead of square (when looked at end on) might fit a 32mm one.

I hadn't thought of packing the cells that way, but it would make a 4 x AAA battery narrow enough to fit between 32mm frames (assuming Roundhouse use the same valve gear parts and frames in both versions). Made up as a battery pack they would be smaller in both width and height than 4 cells in a standard AAA battery holder, so also wouldn't hang down any lower. Certainly worth a try if someone asks for a 32mm gauge conversion.

My reasoning when I put the battery under the cab was that it was directly under what would be the firebox in a full size loco and the battery enclosure would look like an ashpan. Especially if suitably weathered........

Regards,
Graeme

GTB wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 12:45 pm... assuming Roundhouse use the same valve gear parts and frames in both versions ...

They do, but IIRC the frames are the other way around on a 32mm loco in that the end tabs for the buffer beams point outwards rather than inwards.

It is (just) possible to fit a 4 X AAA battery pack between the frames of a 32mm Bertie, but not too much space left for anything else if you stick with the standard Roundhouse buffer beam & centre buffer coupling (GTB's converted Bertie model has a chopper coupling fitted).
Chris Cairns

Chris Cairns wrote: Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:39 pm It is (just) possible to fit a 4 X AAA battery pack between the frames of a 32mm Bertie

I thought it might be possible, but only if the shrink wrap on the battery pack was thin enough. There is probably just enough space for the charging socket and switch to be fitted between the battery and the axle, if the coupler mounting tab is retained.

That mounting tab used on most Roundhouse locos is designed to make it easy to fit an LGB hook and loop coupler in place of the centre buffer.

The simplest way to get more space under the cab and still fit a centre buffer, without making a new buffer beam, is to bend the tab back flush with the buffer beam and drill a hole in it. the normal type of 16mm centre buffer that is fixed by a nut behind the buffer beam can then be mounted.

Graeme