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Is There a Way To Control The Train Speed on “Toy” Christmas Train Sets?
David asks readers: “Well, it’s that time of year when modellers turn to the Christmas tree, and the north American tradition of running a train under it. Over the years I have purchased a number of G scale train sets running on plastic rails. Two of the four sets that I got got dirt cheap from my local Target/Kmart are radio controlled, but effectively on/off, forward and reverse with no speed control function.
Does anyone know a cheap and nasty retrofit so that I can control the speed of these battery operated locos and maybe, one day, turn them into a “proper” railway?”
5 Responses to Is There a Way To Control The Train Speed on “Toy” Christmas Train Sets?
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David, I am assuming these are battery powered. Find a rheostat that can be added in into the wiring at your engine or tender. Put that rheostat onto a RC Throttle servo and run it like a RC plane if this is the case. I would try the rheostate first and see if it will do the job. Probably one from Radio Shack possibly.
Thanks Newman,
I’ll give that a whirl It sound like with this set up I’ll be able to run the loco from the hand unit. Am I right?,
For G scale, a rheostat to take several amps would need to be fairly high power, so would be big and get hot.
So for simple manual speed control, I suggest a PWM speed controller (much cheaper). Many electronics suppliers will have these. Make sure it has sufficient voltage and current capability.
Just two wires in from the battery, and two wires out to the motor.
For example:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Ultra-small-DC-3V-6V-12V-24V-35V-PWM-Mini-Motor-Speed-Controller-Switch-5A-/351487649835?hash=item51d64be82b:g:L7cAAOSwu4BV1EPk
Thanks Frank
So simple. I would have liked to use the RC capacity of the two RC sets as per Newman’s suggestion, but your fix is certainly the way to go for the four manually operated locos
My plan for a similar problem is to use a small motor to turn a long threaded rod, part of a CD player with a super neo magnet operating a series of reed switches, each one bringing shorting out a series of diodes which provide speed control. Mine also relies on a further pair of reed switches to provide reverse. The loco would also require a further reed switch or on off switch to ensure the battery was isolated as finding the centre off position would be challenging. Operation would press one way for increased speed and the other to slow and then reverse and so on. The big advantage of this is that the loco continues at the same speed if it loses radio signal, Most systems stop the train when contact is lost which is completely useless when you have 2 metre long tunnels under the rockery as I have