Battery Power and Radio Control Cars
What is a Battery Car?
A battery car is trailing car with a battery in it that is used to power a locomotive with a radio control receiver installed. Aristo-Craft locomotives come with an MU connector to plug in a battery car, and a track or battery power switch that will disconnect the track power pick-ups when battery power is …
What is a Power and Control Car?
A power and control car contains a battery and a radio control receiver. When plugged into the back of an Aristo-Craft Plug and Play locomotive with the power switch set to battery power, the car can battery power and radio control it. It can also battery power and radio control other locomotives that have an …
Aristo-Craft Battery Boxcar
This article details how to build a 40-foot battery boxcar to power an Aristo-Craft Plug and Play locomotive with a radio control receiver installed. This car utilizes an Aristo-Craft lithium-ion battery pack and is designed to power one Plug and Play locomotive. The only component required to wire this battery car is a 2-wire connector …
Aristo-Craft Power and Control Boxcar
Aristo-Craft, Plug and Play locomotives have MU connectors on each end, and a switch to change between track power and battery power. This article details how to build a 40 foot, power boxcar to take advantage of those connectors. A power and control car is simply a battery car with a receiver added for on-board …
Aristo-Craft Power and Control Gondola
Aristo-Craft, Plug and Play diesels are sold with MU connectors on each end, and a switch to change between track power and battery power. This project details how to build a power and control car to take advantage of those connectors. A power and control car is simply a battery car with a receiver added …
Evans Power and Control Boxcar
This article describes how to assemble an Evans power and control boxcar. This car will contain two lithium-ion batteries and a radio control receiver. When plugged into the back of an Aristo-Craft Plug and Play locomotive with the power switch set to battery power, the car can battery power and radio control it. It can …
LGB Power and Control Boxcar
During the summer of 2011, I purchased a beautiful LGB 0-6-0 steam locomotive and a few European freight cars from the estate of a good friend Ralph Dipple. As I wanted to run this locomotive with battery power and radio control, I decided to build a trailing power and control car. One of the LGB …
LGB Power and Control Tender
After adding an MU connector to an LGB Mallet, a power car was required to battery power and radio control the locomotive. The most suitable trailing power car for the Mallet was an LGB American tender. This power car was built by the late Ralph Dipple in the summer of 2011. He installed an Aristo-Craft …
1 comment
Hello
I’m in the process of converting an Aristocraft Alco RS3 I bought in June at a train show in Montreal to battery power instead of rail power however, instead of simply disabling the track power feed along with the MU connectors and running it only off an internal lithium battery I’d like to retain the two MU connectors so that I could also power it via a battery car when the internal battery runs down. I saw a site on the internet describing doing this, but didn’t save the link and can’t find it anymore but was wondering if anyone in your club had done something similar. My idea is to use the track/battery switch under the long hood to instead switch between the internal battery and the MU connector supplied external source. If that could work I’d only have to install one latching DPDT switch to toggle the internal battery between powering the loco and charging.
I’ve got a CRE57002SD Receiver to install in the RS3’s Plug and Play main board however the previous owner installed an MRC AD322 DCC board in it and didn’t do a particularly good job of it (he used hockey tape of all things on wire connections instead of heat shrink tubing) and appears to have cut the original speaker wires from the sub-board with the sub-board (RS-3 SUB 001 532-X020) that contains the ‘Motor – Battery/Track’, ‘Lights On/Off’, and ‘Smoke On/Off’ switches under the long hood behind the smoke generator. Both orange wires are soldered to the board adjacent to labelling that say’s ‘speaker’ which is why I’m assuming they’re the original speaker wires. I’ve tried finding schematics online that confirm I’m correct and that I just have to reconnect them to my speaker, however as Aristocrat has been defunct for a while I’m having no luck finding any schematics for the internal circuitry. While I’ve found some sites with info, my understanding is that Aristocrat put out five different versions of this locomotive and I’m guessing my is the last iteration of it as all the boards are marked ‘ver 1.o5’
Any assistance you or your members can provide would be greatly appreciated. Also, how does one join your club? I’m located out in North Dundas near Russell so I’d only drop by the club layout in Nepean occasionally.
Dan Labonte
Morewood, ON