A Question for All LocoFi Users & Potential Users

I'm currently (pun recognized) working on an old HO P2K SP PA-1 Daylight Scheme for services that used a single PA-1 for 3-5 car trains between Oakland Mole and Sacramento 4-5 times daily in the early 1950's. I've set my SP 2-8-0 conversion aside for the moment. I am using nano plugs for the wiring connections which has been a small learning curve. Particularly creating a 3 nano-plug connection junction for the front and rear truck pickups. I had not planned to run this as dead rail but I have a dummy (yes one of the last) dummy PB-1 unit that I am interested in using as a battery car. Any ideas on how to switch between track and battery power without having to take the PA-1 shell off. I removed the old mother board from the P2K PA-1 and created a sheet plastic replacement structure to go over the exposed rear truck gears.

I like the arguments in favor of onboard battery power. I'm hesitant about doing it because I am a modular model railroader and locos often sit for months unused. That means that I would have to be diligent about keeping them charged regularly when not in use to maintain battery function. It would be easy to say that I would keep them charged but human nature would more likely make it a task to be put off, perhaps too many times, resulting in battery problems. If I had an often-used home layout I'd probably be using onboard batteries already.

Ken, I bought the LocoFi and am the process of learning how to connect it to a loco. A little background: I'm new to model trains. I flew RC airplanes for 50 years and finally go tired of them. I also race radio controlled model sailboats. Still needed a hobby to replace my airplanes so I committed to building a small HO layout using Dead Rail. I'm 82 years old and no longer am willing to get under tables to wired track, etc. I'm reading as much as I can from you site. There are so many more advantages to using Dead Rail vs Live Track I do not see how anyone just getting started, would choose Live Track. I'll keep you posted as I go through my venture. Roger

Working on the idea of using a second "dummy" loco as the battery car at the moment.

It was/is not unusual for other rolling stock to be used as a "handle" when the track cannot support the weight of the loco assigned to the job.

For ME, using a battery car, even though less "prototypical" is well worth it for the ease of track set up and everyday use with no track cleaning. I was able to get LocoFi, with its attached speaker and the battery into the tender of the IHC 2-8-0 Consolidation I am using, thus the tender IS the battery car.

Prior to solutions like LocoFi, there wasn't much available to justify switch to dead rail. If there's no track power, then how do you control the locomotive. The only way is to remote control it. Prior technologies were either primitive like infrared and/or required multiple proprietary throttles and to get sound you had to buy two separate items, the sound decoder and the radio receiver that may be limited in functionality it can offer. The installation at best was successful for large scale only and made more sense too.

In the current scenario with LocoFi, it's a lot easier to set up and operate. The only downside maybe for those installs that require a battery car to be permanently attached which is especially not prototypical if we were to consist some locomotives. Any out of the box solutions?

Thank you so very much for taking the time to share some of your ideas and responses to some of the points that I brought up. That is very much appreciated..

I've just recently found a combination using the safest, readily available, type of Lithium-ion battery, the cylindrical LiFePO4 14500 size, think AA size, and LocoFi for HO scale with a trailing battery car. It yields at least two hours of prototypical run time. I've not gotten the info on this system on my Website or my YouTube channel yet, but it's in the works.

Excellent question! We'll take a stab at it.

For those who are already into DCC, there is little sense in converting to deadrail with all the costs involved.

That leaves us with DC only modelers. In our experience, the reasons are varied. It is a mixed bag of all the possibilities that you've mentioned. Although it's easy to look at the negatives or cons, there are plenty of pros that come with deadrail. We guess unless there is a deal breaker con, here's our pros for all the cons.

>Going Dead Rail is too complicated with having to charge and maintain batteries.

Is it more complicated than cleaning track and wheels?

>Going Dead Rail is too dangerous when using Lithium-ion batteries.

We carry at least one large Li based battery in our pocket almost whole day (our smartphone).

>Dead Rail locomotives have short running times.

However, they are very productive. There is no bitter experience of having to deal with power interruptions, shorts and other issues that come with track power.

>Creating a HO battery car, with easy access to the battery, is too complicated.

It's a one time thing with probably low maintenance.

>Using a dedicated battery car is not very prototypical and I just don’t like the idea.

Consider this. "Power on board" is very prototypical just like the real trains carry their own fuel (except electric trains).

>It just takes too much work to do and having a plug and play system would be better.

Again, it's a trade off between one time investment vs daily frustration.

>The cost in time and money is too high.

One time investment.

>Lithium-ion batteries are too expensive.

Not anymore.

>I just prefer to use DC or DCC. Why?

Battery is pure DC with no power interruption issues.

>I don’t know enough about using Dead Rail to make intelligent purchasing decisions.

There's plenty information on this forum and Ken's website.

>There is almost no real, or useful information, on the Internet, or YouTube, regarding Dead Rail.

There is in fact a lot of varied information that can make decisions difficult as opposed to a "manual".

>Dead Rail is mostly used in scales larger than HO and is too fiddly for HO.

It's certainly easier to work with in larger scales but not impossible in smaller scales.

>It’s just not a “real” model railroading “thing”.

We need a new perscpective to see alternative power types like the battery.

>Hardly anyone in HO scale uses Dead Rail, so there is no deep knowledge base to draw from to learn more about it.

Traditionally, analog DC only or DCC could not utilize battery power. Using radio control was either too expensive or not prototypical with battery power until newer systems like LocoFi came along.

>Dead Rail is just a passing fad.

We guess that it's probably here to stay!

One thing we can assure you is that there are in fact plenty LocoFi deadrail users out there. For those who have simply decided to go that route, we find that most of them do not have enough information on how to go about doing this and we have been pointing them out to your website as an excellent resource. Maybe the information on your website is so detailed and clear that there is no more questions left to ask :-)

-LocoFi Team