Show your pictures of your charging stations.

I use MTO smart chargers.  They are simple, no fuss, to muss, plug and forget.  I used to just plug it in and let the wire lay over the track and the side of the layout. 

@Bob Delbridge  inspired me with his idea of using a water column to hide the charge cable.

I was at the York Train show and this fella was selling a MTH Oil facility for $50.  After examination and a failure to negotiate $40, I purchased the item and started to think how I could use it to hide my charge wires.

As you see above, I mounted the chargers underneath the layout.  I ran the charge wires up the though the two tubes on the bottom of the oil facility.

The oil rig has some existing wiring and connectors because it was designed to move and operate.  I utilized and took advantage of what was there and connected my charge wires to the oil rigs wiring to the connectors you see here.

Then I went to the big box hardware store and roamed around the plumbing department for some tubing.  I was originally thinking standard PVC, but I found these 90 degree pieces with all sorts of extra things connected to it.  I don't even know what it is or what it's for, but it looked cool and thought it would just add to the oil rig perfectly.

The MTO Smart Charger has a light.  Red for charge, green for complete.  That does me no good underneath the table, so I took the light out and ran a wire from the charger to these poles I made from spare parts from toilet flush kit.  I keep and try to repurpose many things on my layout.

When possible, I like to keep my charge receptacle on the engine fuel tank.  It makes things simple, and it has a pretty good look with the charging station.

I have a couple of engines where I hid the charge port VERY well.  Can you see it?

The downside is I used a different connector, and had to make an adaptor, so when it's charging, it does not look as good as the other engines above.

I have two other battery trains where I put the charge receptacle underneath.  From a hiding standpoint it's great.  But they are not as simple to plug in.  All of my future stuff will be hidden in plain sight.

On my last project, I could not put the receptacle on the fuel tank, because the plastic shell came down over it.  I had to find another area and did not want to hide it underneath.  Here is a quick extract from my RailPro install series on YT.

I find that two chargers are plenty to rotate my fleet through and do not see the need to have a dedicated charger for every engine.  This of course then requires you to think about battery chemistry and ensure you stay consistent with what your charger can do.  I like Lithium Ion with Printed Circuit Board (PCB) protection.  The PCB prevents over charge and under current.  The MTO smart charger works perfectly with these types of batteries.

Have Fun.

Ron

Ron thank you for sharing that looks very nice. I decided to make the attempt in putting mine where my fuel depot is. It my work or may not. I am having to rebuild the area to make this work . I like your hardware you picked up at the store. I may look into that. I have three photos they may not show the area where I am planning on placement very well.

1 is looking down the track

2 is facing the area on platform that I intend to use

3 is the start of  construction of the charging station.

1 st photo has my colored fuel tanks that I had to take out of the area . Does take away from the photo . Sorry 😞 also finding a place for my smart charger is  going to be a challenge.

Have you. Ever started to  add to scenery and ended up making it worse . Well I did just that. So I decided to rip out the old and buid the new. But for some reason I can not get my creative juices to flow. I am just stumbling around trying to figure out a charging facility and what it should look like. I have looked at pictures and previous post and have came up empty with a ideas I like. I love it when a plan comes together but then trying to get there can be the problem.

Has anyone thought about two strips of copper on the bottom of the tank that engage two contacts at the charging station?  You just drive in and stop in the correct place and the charging starts.  No plugs or switches.

I would love to see a diagram or picture of something that does this. Being I am not savvy on electrical.  You would think that some of the deadrail group would have look at something like this. You could take a section of track and have copper contacts sticking up something like the kadee's magnetic system. Then attach copper stripes from engine or battery car that would  come in contact when placing over the track position copper. 🤔 would like to hear some comments on this.

My guess is that was a stupid idea.

@Bill Grafmiller posted:

My guess is that was a stupid idea.

IMO, nothing stupid about it, just didn't strike anyone's fancy.  Since I don't do deadrail, I have no need.

The idea of a "plug-in" will not work easily as noted. So delete the plug-in.

What John is suggesting is copper strips. Thus, he means two copper strips; one for positive and one for negative separated and placed on the ties between the rails.

Then replace the plug-in with two separated downward pins that line up with John's two copper strips set up between the track rails to match the two pins.

I would 3D print a "copper strip holder" that could be attached to the ties.

That sounds like it would be doable.  John I apologize if you thought I was talking about your idea. That comment was directed at mine. Alan thank you for sharing and making it a little clearer for this guy. I do hope there is more follow ups. I do like different ideas.

I like John's idea. Reminds me of my old Aurora AFX slot cars.

Well I finally ended up with what I was looking to accomplish.  Here is photos of start to finish.

Now  it's back to converting my fleet to battery. I would like to omit the tender on my legacy NW2 and see if I can get everything in or under the engine shell. Bought some mto battery's that I am hopping I will be able to fit along with the railpro module.  Also going to strip the lionchief plus NW2  and have the battery and add a railpro module under the shell of the diesel like to get rid of the tender on both NW2 DIESEL SWITCHERS. Will see if that can happen. Then on to converting  a GP-30 and GP-38 to battery power. See you all at the station

@Bill Grafmiller posted:

Well I finally ended up with what I was looking to accomplish.  Here is photos of start to finish.

Super job Bill.  Congratulations.