I can’t believe that it has been about 5 months since my last post.
I’ve spent a lot of time designing and making paper and card stock buildings for my train table.
If you are interested in my structures, you can take a look at them here;
https://theampeer.org/HO/index.html#MYSTRUCTURES
On the Dead Rail, battery-on-board, front, I do take time to run my LocoFi-Dead Rail locos and do some shunting. Everything is running just fine.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine, who is very interested in Dead Rail and LocoFi came over and we “ran” all three of my locos. He was absolutely “sold” on Battery-on-Board and using LocoFi.
He ordered, and has received, a DULLHB - LocoFi 3 WiFi Sound Decoder and is planning on installing it in a large tender attached to an old HO 0-6-0 switcher. He had the LocoFi Team install the steam sounds before sending the decoder to him.
On Saturday, May 10, 2025, he came over to check out my latest building and to get help setting up his Android phone to download the free LocoFi App.
He had purchased a new, but older version, inexpensive Android phone just for the purpose of running LocoFi.
We struggled together to finally set up the Android phone, as we are both iPhone users. The struggle had nothing to do with the LocoFi app, just our inability to get his phone set up to get to the app.
Once the LocoFi app was installed, we easily set up the LocoFi app on his phone and he ran all three of my various locos with his new phone and had a ball with it.
Now we just need to have him find the tender and get the motor isolated from the frame of the loco. We can then install the LocoFi system.
Recently, there seems to have been an upsurge in information online, and on YouTube, regarding Dead Rail for model railroading. Unfortunately, there is an online game named Roblox that has a part of the game named Dead Rails. Many Dead Rail searches on YouTube now include a lot of videos related to this game.
During the New Tracks Modeling meeting, on May 7, 2025, Jamie Bothwell presented a section titled, “S Scale Loco Fi”.
Jamie goes over what he’s been doing to set up a S scale Dead Rail locomotive using LocoFi.
Now could really be the time for you to go LocoFi and go Battery-on-Board/Dead Rail.