Battery powered tinplate trains?

[Annie]

While digging about and shifting stuff to make way for my layout baseboards I found a large amount of Hornby '0' gauge and coarse scale '0' wagons as well as various old down on their luck '0' gauge locos by Leeds & etc.  I thought I'd sold off all this stuff so I was surprised to find I still had it.
This has caused me to rethink my indoor 16mm layout and I'm strongly considering laying part of the trackwork in dual 32/45mm gauge so I can give my old tinplate stuff a chance to stretch its legs.  I certainly don't want to lay a third rail for electrical pickup and go back to the horrors of live track so I'm thinking about a nice handy battery wagon or luggage van that can be plugged into my elderly '0' gauge locos.  None of my '0' gauge locos are pristine collectors items and some have been heavily hacked about by previous owners and no longer have the electrical mech that they started with so a little light modification will be fine to fit the necessary connections.  For most of my locos 12-15 volts DC would be fine and those that have AC motors can just grin and bear it.

What I would like to know is would anybody have any suggestions as to the type of male and female plug in connectors that would make a tidy job of such a conversion.  Batteries would be NiMH rechargeables unless anyone has a better suggestion.
Being able to charge the batteries without having to take them out of the battery van/wagon would also be nice.

[Busted Bricks]

NiMH would be my choice too.

In terms of connectors you won't be pulling much current so JST connectors would do. The are cheap and can be bought pre-wired:

http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-10-Pa ... 50810.html

[-steves-]

I would also go with red JST pre-wired connectors too, I use them all over the place.

As for batteries, I have started using li-lo's, 3.7v each, a little bigger than an AA battery in length. These have really good capacities and take up less room for an overall pack. You can get from eBay, plastic battery holders for 1-4 cells, giving you almost any voltage you like. 3.7v is their stated voltage, but when charged they are nearer to 4.2 or 4.3v each, so 3 cells would give you a little over 12v. Just search for 18650 lithium batteries and you will soon find loads of differing capacities. Just note, you will need an appropriate charger which might cost a little up front. Just food for thought.

[Busted Bricks]

Lithium cells are damaged if discharged completely AFAIK. You will need some sort of low voltage cutoff with them.

[ge_rik]

Lithium cells are damaged if discharged completely AFAIK. You will need some sort of low voltage cutoff with them.

You can get 'protected' 18650s which include circuitry to prevent over discharge. They cost a little bit more but are worth it for peace of mind. Alternatively, you can buy unprotected 18650s and then include a protection board in the circuit - such as this - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151964886034 - or you can get them more cheaply from China (search for 3S lithium protection)

Rik

[Busted Bricks]

We are spoiled for choice these days. You can get by with a lower cell count and use a boost converter to reach 12V. With a converter you could run off a 4-cell NiMH pack. The converters are usually adjustable so you could reduce the output if you wanted slower running.

I use 3-cell Lipo packs as I have lots of them for use in my R/C aircraft. A simple low voltage alarm warns me when they are running low.

http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-7_4V- ... 25595.html

[Annie]

Wow, you've all certainly given me plenty to think about.  Thank you for giving me the benefit of your combined experience  :D

Only problem is that I've just found a box full of '0' gauge mechs and a lot of other '0' gauge stuff including a Lionel 6 coupled mech that would look soooooo fitted to a certain Leeds Standard series 1 tank engine bodyshell I've got.


I thought all this stuff was gone, that I'd sold it when I got sick, but it looks like I didn't sell it afterall.  Now I've got a horrible dilemma; - should I build an indoor coarse scale '0' gauge layout like I always intended to do when I first moved here, - or should I go ahead with building the 16mm Kotanga Tramway indoors.  The other option that's a possible maybe is that I build the Kotanga Tramway out in the presently weed grown courtyard that adjoins my bedroom.  If nothing else it would give me a reason to spend some time outside in the garden instead of sitting about feeling sorry for myself.

Or I could take up skydiving............  ;)

Edit Update: I've come to my senses and I'm going to stick with building my indoor 16mm layout. Working on '0' gauge just feels so tiny after working in the larger scales. My favourite 'must keep' '0' gauge models will be displayed on a shelf and can enjoy their retirement.