Track or Battery Power?
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Now there's a question that can drive some interesting
discussion.
(See this forum
discussion to see what I mean:
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/23/tpage/1/view/Topic/postid/72180/Default.aspx
)
If you are getting started in Largescale, this will most
likely be a question that you may ask yourself either right up front (hopefully)
or at some point in the future. From reading the discussion forums online
you may a lot of general statements about one or the other that don't in my
opinion accurately reflect the realities and give you the big picture.
Compounding this problem there are numerous parties who promote certain systems
because it's in their or their buddies best financial interest. (i.e.
People either directly selling products or getting free product from
manufacturers.)
That is the purpose of this write-up, to attempt to provide a
high level cost summary review based on what I've learned in my 5 years of being
involved in the hobby. There are a lot of things to consider and I will
over time try to include as much as possible as I develop this page.
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What do I go with, battery or track power?
Two of the main points people cite generally in trying to
decide which way to go is 1) Cost (initial & over-time) and
2) Maintenance/trouble of operation.
So what is it? To save you from reading everything
below, the short honest answer is it Depends....
Depends on variables like:
1) What type and how many engines do you plan to run at one time?
2) How big will
your layout ultimately be?
3) How many
hours a day do you plan to run?
4)
What type and level of sophistication of control you want?
Key summary points: (see Detail Discussion for
source of cost figure estimates)
- Reliable track power deployments are more expensive, so
the larger the layout the more it will initially cost.
- Stainless Steel - ~$6.59/ft - (Best for
track power, no cleaning required)
- Brass - ~$4.52/ft - (Good for track power,
cleaning required)
- Aluminum - ~$3.02/ft - (Generally good for
battery only)
- Battery power becomes more cost prohibitive the more
and larger the engines you want to run and the longer you want to run them
(Example: Aristocraft Dash-9 runs 1 hour on one $70 Aristocraft Li-ion
battery pack. Charger cost $26. Source: Image of
discussion post ) The more Dash-9s you run, and
the more hours of run time you want, the higher the investment in batteries
and chargers you will make.)
- You will eventually have to replace the battery packs
as they go bad. (approx 3 year life span. Source:
Life-span question & answer )
- (Some claim battery lives of 7-15 years are possible
with Ni cad, but I've never seen a rechargeable battery last more 3
years and still have any usable power amperage for any reasonable length of time
when actually put to use.)
- Generally speaking, the more advanced control systems are
track power based. (Some like DCS can be adapted to battery however)
- Stainless Steel track has in-fact eliminated the need to
clean track because of corrosion so you now have true trouble-free
operation.
- Stainless steel will not help if you have
environmental issues like tress dropping sticky sap on your rails.
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Detail Discussion:
Track power: (To minimize
hassle you will need the following at a minimum)
- Transformer - (Top of the line Bridgewerks power
supplies range from $148 to $517(3 to 25 amp))
- [$148(3 amp), $244(5 amp), $281(10amp), $310(15amp), $384(20amp)
$517(25amp)]
- Track - (Main types good for track power:
Stainless steel or Brass) - ~$5.40/ft for SS / ~$ 3.95/ft for Brass (at
7/22/08 sale pricing buy 4 get 1 box free)
- Feeder wire (needed if using SS OR if using Brass
without Split-jaw rail clamps) - ~$ .40 per ft (12 gauge low
voltage outdoor landscape wire)
- Rail clamps - (really a must) - {with 5ft
sections} add $.79/ft for SS / $.57/ft for Brass (www.Trainworld.com
Split-Jaw clamp prices as of 7/22/08)
- General points:
- All engines from all manufacturers run on track power
right out of the box.
- Advent of Stainless Steel has eliminated the need to
clean track because of non-electrically conductive corrosion common with
brass rail.
- You will need to utilize feeder wires with
Stainless steel on ovals over ~120ft because of voltage drop.
- A layout good for track power is also good for
battery powered engines
- Your friends who run either track or battery power
can both run on your layout.
- Have the ability to run more sophisticated sound
and control systems such as DCC and DCS.
- You will hear that some have good experience with
brass track outdoors, but it all always requires some sort of cleaning
at some point to address corrosion/oxidation.
Battery power: (You
will need at a minimum)
- Track - (Aluminum is lowest cost option available)
- $3.02/ft for Aluminum rail from
http://www.svrronline.com/TrackandRail.html
- Batteries - (Aristocraft Li-Ion pack 21.5volts /
2amps) - $70 each PLUS One battery charger per battery
pack - $26/each)
- Details (Run times):
- Dash-9 - Each battery pack will power for
1 hour. (Source: "Battery Run Times" thread posted 07/11/08 on
www.aristocraft.com)
- U25 - Each battery pack will power for 2
hours. (Source: "Battery Run Times" thread posted 07/11/08 on
www.aristocraft.com)
- Engine may require modification to run battery power
(If not made by Aristocraft) - USA Trains, MTH, Bachmann all require
conversion
- Control system -
- Aristocraft: (as an example)
- Train Engineer - Handheld Wireless Transmitter
<Qty 1>: $99
- Train Engineer - Onboard Engine control board
<Qty 1>: $144 (Not sure how many engines one board can power)
- Cost summary: (Layout only)
- Lower cost of track deployment. (Saves: $1.52/ft
compared to Brass / $3.59/ft compared to Stainless Steel)
- Example: (What a 700ft layout would now cost approximately)
- Aluminum - $2114
- Brass (no feeders) - $3164
- Stainless Steel - $4613
- General points:
- Only Aristocraft engines are equipped to run battery
power right out of the box all others will require modification.
(Modifications are relatively simple)
- A layout not built out for reliable track power
running will limit only you to only being able to run battery
equipped/converted equipment.
- Recurring battery replacement costs about every 3
years. Total recurrent cost will depend on how many you will need
to keep on hand at a time.
- You will be limited in the control systems you will
likely want to run under battery. Generally speaking, these
control systems are more basic when compared to the more
sophisticated systems generally used with track power in G scale today
such as DCC and DCS(by MTH). (As noted before DCS can be adapted
for battery operation)
- Battery equipped engines do:
- Allow you to run on any layout regardless of the
native control system the hosting layout has or is running right then.
- Eliminate the need to worry about electronics
required to run reversing loops.
- If you have already invested heavily in a large brass
track layout and some of the following battery might be a good option
for you:
- Don't like the hassle of cleaning the track
- Don't want to convert to stainless steel
- Run limited numbers of engines at one time
- Run smaller engines
- Only want to run for relatively short periods of
time
- Have trees dropping sticky sap on your rails.
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Other thoughts:
To give an example on the costs of attempting to use batteries
on my layout with my trains:
************************
I tend to run an entire day 10+ hours and will sometimes run 5
Aristocraft Dash-9s + 60 coal hoppers on one track and 3 MTH Big Boys + 60 coal
hoppers on another track. Using the estimated run-time experience from
actual users provided in the noted Aristocraft discussion thread above
Image of discussion post, to run 5 Dash-9s 10
hours, it would require 10 Aristocraft Li-ion batteries for each Dash-9 (for a
total of 50 battery packs) with a per unit cost of $70 each and a total battery
cost of $3500(not including chargers @$26 each or an additional $1300). To
run my Big Boys I will assume if I'm lucky they have the same power requirements
as each Dash-9 so to run those 10 hours would require 10 battery packs for each
engine (for a total of 30 battery packs). At $70 each that works out to a
total cost of $2100. The combined need would be 80 battery packs for both
trains and a combined cost in just batteries alone would come to $5600 (not
including the cost of chargers at $2080) which would be a grand total of $7680. In 3 years or so I would have to
repeat this battery cost over again. Note that the entire cost to deploy a
large 700ft of stainless steel track would only cost $4613. Figure in the
most expensive Bridgewerks transformer at 25amp of $517 and I'm only at $5130.
I realize that this is an extreme example and most people don't
run this many engines at one time. However, if you have simply one Dash-9
that you want to run all day, that's 10 battery packs for a total cost of $700
in batteries. Add in 10 chargers and you're at $960. You can see
that battery costs can quickly eat up the lower initial cost of entry with being
able to go with Aluminum rail... and over the cost of many years the battery
cost can eventually exceed the cost of a properly done Stainless steel
deployment.
I haven't gone into the lighted passenger cars and trains, but
these are big power hogs. Generally because you run them lit only at
night, the needed run time duration are usually shorter because it is at
night. This is another area that would need to be addressed.
So as you can see, in my case battery power would be extremely
cost prohibitive and maintenance nightmare as I don't know where I would store
80 batteries and 80 chargers.
Other experiences lending support to the issue of
running larger engines under battery power:
-
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/aff/23/aft/112992/afv/topic/afpg/2/Default.aspx
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Myths I have heard: (Track power)
- "With track power you have to clean you track to
get them to run" - ANSWER: FALSE Not
any more. Stainless steel has truly eliminated this problem of poor
conductivity due to oxidation/corrosion. (particulates
adhered to the rail tops could cause some issue but this has not been a
problem for me at all.) As said before, if you have an issue
like trees dropping sap on the rails then this would be an exception.
- Example: In 2008 I finally ran a
train on my old 120ft loop that had not been used, cleaned or touched for
well over a year. The train drove out on it and had no
hesitation or power pickup problems and had no flicker at all from the passenger car lights.
Even I was surprised.
- "Even with rail clamps you will have to regularly
check Rail clamps are tight and will require maintenance" - ANSWER: FALSE
The major portion of my layout has been in place for 5 years and the rail
clamps do not work loose or loosen. Once tight, they will remain that
way till you loosen them.
- "Even with rail clamps you will not be guaranteed a
reliable electrical connection" - ANSWER: FALSE
Again, my layout has been in place 5 years with no issues with the rail
connections and they have not been touched since they were installed.
Myths I have heard: (Battery power)
- "Battery power is cheaper and saves money"
- ANSWER: DEPENDS This is a very general
statement and as I outlined in the Other Thoughts and Summary section above,
battery power gets more cost prohibitive as you add more and bigger engines
and expect longer run times. There is a lower initial cost of
entry, yes.
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Final Comments:
It should also be noted that what I have attempted to provide
here is are some key bullet points used for illustration and to partially assist
with making your decision. I highly encourage you to read the Largescale
discussion forums to further educate yourself on the issues, control & sound
systems, etc so you can make as informed decision as possible as to what is best
for you.
In the end, there is no right or wrong in the options, just choices. What you end
up selecting will be based on what you like, value, your budget and other
intangibles. In the end, it's not about how fancy your control system or
if you choose to do what I do. Everyone should be encouraged to do what
they think is best for them and to enjoy.
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