Bought a Premire GG1 (MT5501L) in 1998 and put it on the shelf. Last night, in preparation for testing before doing a Proto2 conversion, it charged up and held the charge just fine.
Pretty tough stuff after 14 years of "dry storage".
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I wonder if a new NiCad battery is inactive until its first charge.
And for the rest of the story; after taking a full charge, it died 1/2 hour later ... 
Jim,
The MTH replacment battery is now Lithium-Ion
I believe you mean Nickel Metal Hydride, NiMH.
Are the use of Lithium-Ion batteries safe to use in trains? We use Lithium Polymer and Lithium-Ion batteries in RC planes and there are precautions in their use and storage as they can catch fire.
Well these planes carry no fuel as they use electric motors and are using battery packs and the problem can arise when charging the batteries or shortly afterword if they get hot while charging. Crashing the plane may cause them to start fire if the battery gets damaged also according to the warnings on the use of these.
You can use NiCd or NiMh batteries but they are heavier and they won't run as long.
What do you mean by "run as long": battery life til n.g. or duration of providing current.
The battery in a MTH loco probably only supplies current on a few occasions, but I believe the lithium-ion is designed for high loads and deep discharge under laod, a situation not present in a loco.
That would not be true on a lead-acid battery. If it is going to be subject to deep discharge and then recharge, the battery must be specially constructed with additional plate reinforcements. That's why an auto battery is not suited for use with an electric trolling motor
Just got my internet service back after being off for a day. It must of went down sometime yesterday morning. Lost my TV and phone also.
RJR, (battery life til n.g. or duration of providing current.)
I was referring to duration of current as the planes can only fly up to 15 minutes or less with the batteries we use depending on their size. I'm not sure about battery life as this is something new for me.
With the trains having a charging system on board, I don't think the longer current duration batteries are necessary and they might possibly be safer in trains. Something to look into.
