# Power Outage? No problem.



## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Often during the heat of battle here on MLS over the great Track Power vs: Battery Power debate, one of the pros for battery power is "Well I can keep running when the power goes out!" Well, that's exactly what I did. Last weekend, we had our club display running at the County Fair, when all of a sudden Thomas the Tank quit, our video display of real garden railroading went black, and our water feature quit featuring .... But my little battery powered HLW Woody just kept on truckin'. In fact, I had a hard time convincing the guy in charge of the show, that we were really out of power. It took about 30-45 minutes for the proper guy to reset a breaker, so battery power saved the day!










The Woody ran just fine for the entire 4 hour shift. I also had one of my "RailBots" zipping around on the same loop. We would ask the kids if they wanted to see a train wreck, pull a model car across the tracks, and then just stand back. The RailBot would stop about 1" short of hitting the car. Then I'd back the car off the tracks, and off the RailBot would go.



Now I don't think the fear of a power outage alone is going to convert anyone. But this is certainly one less thing I worry about now. In years past, I lost track power several times during an open house due to a faulty GFI breaker. Very embarrassing when you have a yard full of people.


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## eheading (Jan 5, 2008)

For me personally, Del, just one of the many, many advantages that I see on my railroad for battery power!

Ed


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## Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

Chalk one up for the dark side!


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Yeah, but when the battery runs down, yer outta power and can't recharge 'em. 

Now, if'n y'all come unto the Lght of Live Steam you can just refill the alcohol tank/butane canister or coal bin and keep on train'in'! 

(Well, when you run out of fuel then you are in the doldrums, too.... unless it is alcohol then you can break out the drinkin' kind and burn it, too!)


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 11 Aug 2010 05:21 PM 
Yeah, but when the battery runs down, yer outta power and can't recharge 'em. ....



And the whole point of this post was I did NOT run outta power, the track did. 99% of the time, if my battery is flat, so am I by that time. Then we both rest. If you are running a marathon train event, you simply swap out batteries or trains, or plug in an aux battery car, etc. These are things I can control. I can't control the grid. (Well not any more. I use to actually do just that, but I retired.)


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