I can think of a few reasons for using battery power on an indoor layout. 1 - Modeling a railroad using poles or wooden rails. Below is a link for a video with a truck, but a Class A Climax with some disconnects would be neat, and an attempt at a railroad with wooden rails is on my to-do-someday list.
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675056181_wooden-track_engine-moves_tree s-seen_logs-of-wood 2 - As others have said that it could eliminate wiring. Personally, I don't mind installing wiring. 3 - Not having to gap complex track work. Example 1 - I have a spot on my layout where a dual-gauge three-way stub turnout would be the best solution. However, this turnout will require 9 frogs, of which 6 will need to change polarity. Since this is in a yard, and only a switcher (0-6-0T) would need to use it, battery power would make it easy to just isolate the whole turnout. Example 2 - At Diamond Springs, CA where the Diamond & Caldor interchanged with the SP, there was a dual-gauge stub turnout with a dual-gauge track crossing through the middle, including crossing through the one frog. A model of this would have to have the frog gapped within it because two rails of different polarity cross the same frog. (Picture on page 77 of the book El Dorado Narrow Gauge by Mal Ferrell.) At one time, in the earlier days of DCC, there were arguments that we didn't need more than 14 speed steps and why did we need the long addresses, 128 (truncated to 100 by some systems) was enough. Dave Heine Easton, PA Unless one has a very dirty layout area I can't imagine it being worth the trouble to install all this specialized equipment into all one's locos. Decoders are pretty cheap and fool proof these days, DCC and frog juicers have eliminated any block wiring concerns, and nickle silver rail indoors in a normal room is mostly trouble free. I can see battery power being attractive to garden railroaders but I don't know why most indoor operators would be interested in it? ........DaveBranum ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
