# RC / Battery - Help and resources for beginners?



## N4niner206 (Jul 25, 2012)

Hello everyone,

I'm very inexperienced in the hobby, but have been in the process (for a couple of years now) of slowly setting up a garden railway. It is something I've wanted since I was just a kid. A few years ago, I started to make the dream a reality with plans for a small back yard garden railroad. I have ZERO experience with running the trains outdoors, but plenty of ideas. However, sometimes I feel like I'm getting in over my head, so I'm asking for help.

My wife and I are in our early 30s and maintain a very strict budget in the interest of saving for our retirement. As a result, my "monthly allowance" only goes so far, so I have to rely on making slow progress and working on the CHEAP. Much of my plan revolves around this "limitation". Living in the windy/dusty desert southwest, I decided early on that I would NOT rely on any track power for running locomotives. I am a pilot by trade, so I spend a lot of time away from home. I knew early on that I wouldn't want the chore of cleaning track on my days off when I could be out running trains. So for that reason, I've elected to go the battery/RC route. Keep in mind I have NO prior experience with this.

I have built several of my own rolling stock very inexpensively from chipboard, cardstock, and mdf. I would like to have several locomotives, but can't afford to build a collection quickly, so I devised a plan to get maximum use out of ONE locomotive for the meantime. My plan is to build a "platform" locomotive from scratch. Basically, this would be a small box atop a motorblock. Inside the small box would house all of the battery/radio gear. It would basically serve as a generic frame. To allow the locomotive to be interchangeable with a variety of roles/rolling stock, customized "body shells" would be built (much like my inexpensive rolling stock, from layered chipboard and styrene) to slip over the frame of the locomotive. This allows the same motor block/radio gear to be a variety of different locomotive types, as the need fits. None of my equipment is meant to be true-to-life or prototype... just fun and meant to "suggest" various types of railroad equipment.

So now that you have my background, time to get to my point/question...

I'm overwhelmed with the "basics" as I feel I'm a bit late to the show. I find a lot of detailed information about specific locomotives, but I cant seem to find a beginner's how-to showing the basics of setting up a RC/Battery rig. Again, I confess to be completely clueless when it comes to anything about electric scale locomotives. Here's what I'm working with...

1) A USA Trains 4-wheel basic electric motor block (came configured for track-power, of course).

2) Hobby King HK-T6A 6 Channel 2.4Ghz Transmitter and reciever

3) RCS-Beltrol BTL-3R

4) RCS-Beltrol ECL-DEC 

5) RCS BIK-U3/6 RC Battery installation kit (provided by RCS)

6) Y cable to allow use of two batteries (provided by RCS)

7) Radio Shack #273-1583 Universal Body Mount Jack (socket) (provided by RCS)

8) Ex-LD cable (provided by RCS)

9) Two 7.2V 1800mAh NI-MH batteries

10) A box and various parts to build my box to hold all of these items.

11) Tony also included some sort of barrel-jack connector ... I think that is for the battery? I ordered the parts so long ago (and due to budget) had to set them aside until I could get around to purchasing the rest of the things needed.... and I have forgotten how much of this works.

Now, here is my question. I've looked over all of the instruction sheets that I can find... and as simply as it may seem for all of you, I feel I'm out of my league. I'm probably the guy who SHOULD have paid somebody to do this for me, but as I mentioned, I'm on a budget. Plus, I wouldn't mind learning along the way. What I'm having a hard time finding is how all of this actually hooks into the motor block. Does it wire into where the track pickups are (were)? I've opened the motor block housing and there isnt much to it... just the elctric motor, the two pickup tabs, the two gears and the wheels. Can anyone point me to the very most basic starting point to learn what I need to know? I've looked at many loc-specific how-tos, but they mainly seem to focus on how/where to place the various components within the locomotive more than how to actually wire things up. I know I'm probably also missing some pieces to the puzzle.

One last note... at present I don't have any light/sound provisions for the locomotive, but would like to add that later. I don't need the fanciest stuff, but would like SOME sort of diesel sound for this eventually, and some basic lighting added later if possible. If anyone has any suggestions/recommendations for that, I'd love to hear.

So, if anyone is willing to help walk me through, I'll be a most willing student. I would be happy to post pictures of the components I have on hand. In the past I ran a lot of these ideas by Tony (who was most helpful) via email before ordering. However those emails have been long lost and I've forgotten a lot of what I researched back then. HELP!


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

N4niiner206, 

Disconnect the track pickups and use 2 wires from the board/esc to power the motor. You don't want your batteries to power the rails. You may have to bend the tabs to break the circuit to the track 

I'll bet that Tony has a Web site with all your answers, I use G-Scale Graphics, RC and Del has a site I used.... 

Tony is a member here and such a nice guy that my hunch is he'll do what ever it takes to get you going. 

My concern is about your batteries, they don't have a great shelf life ... how old are yours? Your answer will help those that know, advise you. 

Happy Rails 

John


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

USA motors have 4 wires all you care about are the 2 outside ones theses go to motor if you take the top off the motor you will see this. you can do 
what ever you want with the pickup but most take them off.the 2 outside wires go to controller 
have fun


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

Check out this website has lots of helpful pics and tips, and has helped me in the past convert engines to battery. Regal 


http://www.ovgrs.org/


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

I rarely if ever delete E mails so if I can have a name to work with and possibly an E mail address, I can forward copies of past correspondence. 
John is correct about the batteries. NiMh batteries do not have a very good shelf life. They will most likely be flat and must be charged before use. 
Unfortunately there is no one set way of doing things for every brand of locos. That is why the instructions I provide show just the most basic way of doing things. That is two wires from the MM terminals on the ESC to the two terminals on the actual motor. Even then each manufacturer does it their own way. The simple answer is you must isolate all the track pick ups from the track. 
A USA Trains motor block has four connector terminals on one end. The outer two go the motor. The inner two are from the track pick ups. Do not connect anything to the pick ups.


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## N4niner206 (Jul 25, 2012)

Thanks for the replies, everyone. It has already been most helpful! 

John â€" I've already removed the track pickups... that was about as much as I could figure out on my own ;-) As far as the batteries go, they were the last thing I purchased and are actually in delivery now. I don't know much about battery brands or which type work best in this application, so I just went cheap for the meantime until I learn a bit more and can make a wise investment. Any suggestions and advice from this group would be appreciated. 

Dick â€" Thanks for the info on the wires. I saw those wires there, but was not sure which went where. That's exactly what I needed to clarify a bunch of the mystery. 

Blueregal â€" Thanks for the link. I started looking over that site and I can see that it would be very useful! 

Tony â€" Thanks! I spent some down-time re-reading over the various instruction files and things are starting to make a lot more sense. They're well written... I definitely wasn't trying to imply any shortcoming there. I know that my issues are completely related to my lack of experience... I've never spent any time working on locomotives, so everything is new to me. Thanks for chiming in. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along. This first â€œbuildâ€� will definitely be a confidence builder. 

Does anyone have any suggestions on batteries? Due to size constraints, my railroad uses some tight radius turns in some places. For this reason I've elected to model equipment that is â€œnarrow gaugeâ€� in style, and will only be using 2-axle locomotives (diesels and tank engines) and short rolling stock. I'm looking for compact batteries that will fit on board my locomotive (space for batteries is about 4.75â€� long x 3.25â€� wide x 2â€� deep. I prefer to get two batteries in that area. Also, whats the best type of battery for garden railroad applications (NiMh, NiCD, Li-ion, etc)? Also any preferences on voltage? I want to make sure that when I do spend the money, I'm making the best choices.


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## ralphbrades (Jan 3, 2008)

Well... I am a firm believer in the use of Sealed Lead Acid batteries (SLA) for outdoor railway use. They do have (to my mind) several advantages. They are HEAVY to improve traction and they are fast to recharge and their discharge cycle is very predictable. I normally use 12Volt SLAs as I normally use 12Volt motors. However You will probably need 24Volt supplies so there will need to be two of them. As to "sizing" the SLA -I have found that as a rough guide an SLA will deliver 45% of its storage capacity in one hour usage. Thus if your power requirements are 5 Amperes for one hour then I would suggest an SLA of 10Amp hours rating would be a good "bet". At Gauge '1' you will not need the "grunt" series cascade battery layout of a Gauge '3' model loco and I would expect that you will be drawing no more than 3-4 Amperes from your battery array -so simple series of two 12V SLA batteries should do you. 

regards 

ralph


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

HELP!  

Way back in the early 2000's, I presented a seminar introducing battery/rc, at the East Coast Large Scale show. The slides are still online: http://gold.mylargescale.com/petethornton/ECLSTS-seminar/Battery & Radio Control2.pdf [ gold dot mylargescale dot com/petethornton/ECLSTS-seminar/Battery%20&%20Radio%20Control2.pdf if this s/w corrupts the link.] 

Most of the info in it is still valid. The major improvement has been the arrival of 2.4Ghz radios, but the wiring is the same.


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

I like li-ion 14.8v 4400mah size is 2and3/4 by 2and 7/8 by 1and1/2 they have a lot of power do not wt. to much you want to be careful add wt. to usa locs. because of traction tires 
they don't need it,if you add to much you can crack the gears. the batts. are tenergy. i can get up to 3 and 1/2 hrs. run time


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## N4niner206 (Jul 25, 2012)

Posted By Pete Thornton on 02 Aug 2012 09:08 AM 
HELP! 

Way back in the early 2000's...

Most of the info in it is still valid. The major improvement has been the arrival of 2.4Ghz radios, but the wiring is the same. 

Awesome resource. Sure wish I could have attended that! I've looked through just now... very helpful for a beginner. I've saved it for future reference. Love that you referenced parts and sources for those parts! Thanks for sharing that.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By N4niner206 on 02 Aug 2012 07:43 AM 
Thanks for the replies, everyone. It has already been most helpful! 

John – I've already removed the track pickups... that was about as much as I could figure out on my own ;-) As far as the batteries go, they were the last thing I purchased and are actually in delivery now. I don't know much about battery brands or which type work best in this application, so I just went cheap for the meantime until I learn a bit more and can make a wise investment. Any suggestions and advice from this group would be appreciated. 

Dick – Thanks for the info on the wires. I saw those wires there, but was not sure which went where. That's exactly what I needed to clarify a bunch of the mystery. 

Blueregal – Thanks for the link. I started looking over that site and I can see that it would be very useful! 

Tony – Thanks! I spent some down-time re-reading over the various instruction files and things are starting to make a lot more sense. They're well written... I definitely wasn't trying to imply any shortcoming there. I know that my issues are completely related to my lack of experience... I've never spent any time working on locomotives, so everything is new to me. Thanks for chiming in. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along. This first “build” will definitely be a confidence builder. 

Does anyone have any suggestions on batteries? Due to size constraints, my railroad uses some tight radius turns in some places. For this reason I've elected to model equipment that is “narrow gauge” in style, and will only be using 2-axle locomotives (diesels and tank engines) and short rolling stock. I'm looking for compact batteries that will fit on board my locomotive (space for batteries is about 4.75” long x 3.25” wide x 2” deep. I prefer to get two batteries in that area. Also, whats the best type of battery for garden railroad applications (NiMh, NiCD, Li-ion, etc)? Also any preferences on voltage? I want to make sure that when I do spend the money, I'm making the best choices. N4 (first name would help),

Welcome to MLS. You say you live in the desert southwest? If that's the case AND you are interested in battery/RC for your trains, then you definitely need to call or e-mail Jonathan Bliese who owns Electric and Steam Modelworks. He specializes in wireless control and battery. He lives in Chino, California. Those of us who run battery/RC and sound consider him the BEST. He will answer your questions without bias and with over twenty years experience. Here is a link to his site. He also sponsors a forum on Large Scale Central now. 

https://rctrains.com/


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## N4niner206 (Jul 25, 2012)

Thanks, Gary. I'm out in the Phoenix, AZ area. There are a couple of garden railroad clubs around here and some good railroad parks that I've checked out. I haven't joined in yet... 

By the way, my name is Cory. Sorry I didn't introduce myself sooner.


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## FlagstaffLGB (Jul 15, 2012)

Cory, let me know ([email protected]) what you find for a club in your area. My wife and I purchased a home in the Sun City, AZ area and I have been given the green light to build a garden railroad in the back yard (22'x25'). Not huge, but should be enough room. My wife is a Master Gardener, so this will be fun...Ha. I have an indoor layout in Flagstaff, AZ and next year hope to extend that outside as well....LGB engines need some "snow" time. Always nice to see new folks getting involved with trains. Ed


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