Garden Railway Forum

It's very simple to do. Just requires a peltier element and a heatsink/fan like those used to cool CPU's in desktop PC. You heat one side of the peltier element and cool the other and it produces electricity. Efficiency is low but that's not an issue at this scale. You can even buy elements already...

Came across a video of a very interesting thermo-electric powered G-scale model tram on Youtube. After some Googling I found out the build of it was described on GSC in 2016: https://www.gscalecentral.net/threads/thermoelectric-tram.307351/ As far as I could see this type of alternative power was no...

And a successful testrun!

Thanks for your reply. Yes I suppose it will fit al under the passenger bench hopefully. :) Some progress on the chassis. I used an other plywood part leftover and and a sheet of balsa on top. Also made an axle mount out of styrene sheets. Again all very basic and light. https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B...

The plywood parts of the Solar House kit turned out to be very handy as a support for the motor and gearbox.With a bit cutting and filing all fits nicely. This base is 72,5 mm in square. I will use some balsa sheets that I have lying around to expand the chassis. It will become somewhere between 130...

Finally found some time to work on this project last week. The Sol Expert motor kit was pretty simple and straightforward to build. The instructions are clear. You can choose between several gear ratios. The kit comes with a little wooden template to adjust the motor gear in different position depen...

I don't like the prototype of the solar draisine... too modern ;-) But it exists!
https://www.solardraisine-ueberwaldbahn.de/

I like the suggested idea about multiple cells in a freight car and using a larger battery to power an engine actually. Perhaps something for a next project. For now I think I'll go on with this setup and make a small draisine or something. Like these small Billard draisines: https://en.wikipedia.or...

Ah no... it works now!!
I think I did not cover the solar cell enough when testing it this afternoon.
Now it is darker and when turning the cell the LED goes on ;-)

Thank you both. Thanks for the link to the Youtube video. I will experiment some more the next week. The strange thing is the LED does not give light but the battery seems charged after one day in the (cloudy) daylight. I coupled the motor to the battery and it spins normally. So... I think the LED ...

Thanks for your replies. So if I understand you correctly I can charge the battery directly from the solar cell? (Besides the diode you advised me?).
I have some old diodes I once used for a DC 12 volts H0 railway (for safety stops at end of tracks). Could these be used for this?

Ah and yes.... this is one of the secret components that must be identified. Any help identifying it is much appreciated. I am sure it is just a standard component but I don't have a good clue what it is called and what specifications it has. https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BBgPEevgisA/XJYPy-_7C7I/AAAAAA...

The state railway authorities approved the start of a secret experimental project called: SOL After some advice on this forum a special espionage team gathered information and acquired foreign technology to secretly examine and adapt to own purposes. All for the sake of the nation of course. Now tha...

Thanks Philip! I had found the video but not the post you mention. I followed the link to the site of John (mentioned in his signature) and find some wiring diagrams: https://onmyworkbenchthisweek.weebly.com/workbench-latest It is what I was looking for but seems a bit technical for(non-technical) m...

Hello all, On this forum, and on some other forums, I have seen posts about some great solar powered locomotives and trams. Unfortunately without any details on how these where build. Does somebody know where I can find some basic instructions / wiring diagram? I like the idea very much but I don't ...

Very sharp looking station building. Any more progress on it since the last post? (Forgive me but I am just very curious to the end result )