DC Electronics outdoors

[barney]

Hi Guys,

I am completly new to this except for having had an electric railway set as a kid.

I am curious as to how external tracks are powered? Is is simply 12vDC as per a normal indoor set? Is this affected to any great extent by rain?

I have thought of R/C controlling trains as I have many R/C models as it is and so am familiar with how to do this but to be honest I am impatient and hate to have to charge models....

I will be doing this over quite some time I imagine as I am not exactly rolling in it these days But I like a challenge and have good engineering / electrical skills and so plan on making as much as possible myself to keep the budget down.

Any advice is appreciated,

Cheers - Barney

[ba14eagle]

Barney

Versions 1 & 2 of my railway were both battery powered, radio control, with the batteries being carried by the trains/locos. This was ok for larger scales like O gauge and G scale, but when I moved onto OO gauge, I used DCC with a normal 12v supply. The annoying thing with using batteries was I wasnt disciplined enough to always have batteries available and charged when I had the opportunity to run. My layout is now set up so that I just take the controller and transformer outside when I want to run trains, fed from an extension lead which is connected to the electricity supply in my shed (obviously using a residual circuit breaker at source). As this is a fair weather hobby, I have never considered running trains when its raining As I dont have any electrified points or lighting (as yet) I cant really comment on that, but I am sure there are plenty of other people here who can point you in the right direction if you want that sort of thing.

Iain

[bazzanoid]

Hi Barney,

As long as you don't operate outdoors in torrential rain in OO gauge, you won't have a problem, it's exactly the same as indoors. Except:

• Make sure your track is never going to be submerged by a rain stormPoints should be kept to a minimum, and require careful maintenance because of the spring action
• Any electrics for accessories should be fully insulated and watertight, so lighting, signals, point motors etc

And you absolutely HAVE to make sure there's a circuit breaker by the main electrics - to protect both your house electrics and the delicate electrics of the railway and stock

Hope that helps, no doubt i've missed something that others will mention!

Barry

[barney]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I will take a look into costs then

Good to know i could run it in rain as long as not too heavy as weather is very hit and miss up here