Garden Railway Forum

Take a look at: http://mdlr.co.uk/loco22.html

Very helpful review. Looks like a nice little loco - might encourage a few to dip into the battery pool.

I wonder if a small 3.7v li-ion (eg 14500) might give it a bit more oomph. That motor looks like it could handle a few more volts.

Rik

The motor is the "standard" 3v jobbie that most of the inexpensive kit makers use..........

ge_rik:118353 wrote:Very helpful review. Looks like a nice little loco - might encourage a few to dip into the battery pool.  :)

I wonder if a small 3.7v li-ion (eg 14500) might give it a bit more oomph. That motor looks like it could handle a few more volts.

Rik

I run mine with an R/C power control car (I have three of these of various types) incorporating a speed controller with BEC powered from two 18650 batteries in series. This into the usual 3v motor. It happily pulls 20+ small quarry type wagons for hours, usually while I am busy working in the garden. I have four small locos From HGLW kits and three scratch built of a similar size using the same type of running gear. All run from the same power cars and we have never had any problem with over voltage etc. Interestingly I have run an Essel Chassis using the same power car to test a metal bodied Danny loco which performed faultlessly, bearing in mind the MFA  Como 918D30112/1 motor gearbox combo involved which is rated at 12-24v 30/1 ratio. No problem pulling the 4 weighted wagons behind the little power car and the loco trundled happily at my preferred speed for about an hour.

The 18650 packs have never ever hit the low power cut off point and are charged after every use. A single pack runing a small loco and a decent rake will run all afternoon.

Nice idea, but I'm all for the simple life and can't be ar$ed to charge up batteries - I have thrown so many away! I find dry batteries (bought in packs of 20 with a good discount) to be cheap enough, convenient and always ready to go.