Nigel says:

I don’t have much experience in this field but am currently building an RC controlled 7/8 scale narrow gauge locomotive so I hope the following will be of assistance.

I guess the biggest challenge is space. Batteries, a receiver and possibly an ESC (electronic speed controller) need to be fitted in – I say possibly for the ESC as I believe that it’s possible to buy receivers with the ESC built in. It was a challenge fitting everything in and the locomotive is built to 1:13.7 scale so with the relatively inexpensive kit that I bought, I wouldn’t fancy my chances in 1:43, albeit on the same track gauge. Batteries are clearly going to be the biggest challenge to get sufficient voltage to drive the motor and sufficient capacity for decent running time.

I did find a couple of websites that may help you. The first describes the conversion of a small 0-6-0 tank engine to RC:

https://riksrailway.blogspot.com/2017/02/how-i-converted-dapol-a1x-terrier-loco.html

And the second is the Deltang website that specialises in compact RC systems for a range of applications including model trains:

http://www.deltang.co.uk/trains.htm

I hope this helps.

Frank B says:

This type of thing has been around for a while. Google “dead rail forum”, and you will find a number od sites dedicated to this..