Diving Into O Scale

Good luck on your venture into "O".  RC Battery control is, in my opinion the coming thing. batteries keep getting better and better! More difficult to find stuff in O 2 rail, but most things can be obtained sooner or later. Enjoy!

Simon

Without repeating myself, do a search of the forum on Battery-Powered, Remote-Control (BPRC), there's a lot of posts on the topic.

Great!  Battery R/C would be a great starting point.  In years to come it may well be the default starting point.

If I may offer a little insight,  a few years ago when I decided to check out the R/C options, one of the things I came across was an approach using model airplane control parts.

Our local plane shop proposed ways to use their very low cost components to run 0 scale size trains.  They had a GP-9 with all their control widgets in place using a typical ambidextrous (what I saw as clumsy) airplane controller.  They quoted $125. parts and labor total cost out the door.

The next step up could be the Piko R/C control which retails for under $100 less battery.  Bob Buck of York has done quite a few conversions using this setup with guys on board here.

Also, an OGR search should bring up Ed Rutling's very low cost R/C approach.  Maybe some others on board would have a link to Ed's work.  Ed was an innovator on several levels and was always open to share his work.

Best wishes in you endeavor, please share your travels...

Thanks for the replies, fellas. Lots to look at here! Meantime, trying to get this Kusan finished (so close). For now, getting it running would suffice!

- Robert

Any article with Reutling on it is worth a look. Ed was a bit of a "wizard" and a very nice fellow.

Simon

I would recommend battery control! I have 3 engines now running under battery power now. Two I had installed and one I l'm finishing up the install myself. So far I love them. I'm using the cvp airwire, which is specifically designed for dead rail locos. More expensive then rc, but worth it imho for expanded functionality with dcc

I appreciate all the replies.

For now, buying some old track for test work. Not sure how long it's going to be before anything resembling a layout begins, though I am certain some rolling stock is going to be built. As I squeak along, I'll share here.

Thanks!

If you can get to a 2 rail show, that will be an education. There are also quite a few videos on You Tube to whet your appetite. Here are a couple links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAjrZ_t6w28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-7d1laEEz4

Simon