Scaled Plus has developed a family of battery-powered locomotives to bring an economical and an environmentally friendly means of motive power to the world of large-scale trains. This technology is not intended to satisfy the diehard steam buff; however, a battery powered replica steam locomotive can capture the romance of the steam era without all of the liabilities associated with live steam. Scaled Plus takes the simplicity and reliability of a modern DC drive and wraps it in the cosmetics of a vintage steam locomotive. With the sound sampling technologies available today, the presentation of the locomotive can be completed with an authentic sounding whistle and very realistic synchronized chuff increasing/decreasing in loudness depending on the position of the throttle.
Battery power has been around for many years and has been successfully used in commercial applications such as industrial locomotives, forklifts, and submarines. The only real limitation in the application of batteries is their weight. Since weight is required for traction applications, battery-power is ideally suited for locomotives. Battery locomotives are used extensively in both the mining and tunneling industries. Shown here is a 5-ton battery locomotive designed and built for a tunneling contractor. Clean, reliable and efficient, this battery locomotive has been designed to operate around the clock in very unforgiving conditions.
Modern solid-state controllers include a regenerative braking feature. This switches the DC motor into generator mode and takes energy normally wasted in stopping or slowing the train, and puts it back into the battery.
Battery life:
Industrial batteries have a service life of approximately 1500 discharge/charge cycles. Compare this to a marine type deep-cycle battery that has a life expectancy of 200 cycles. Industrial batteries are much more robust in their design and therefore have a much longer life expectancy. Of course this means they are much heavier and more expensive then their domestic counterparts. The number of cycles a battery yields is also dependent on how well the battery is maintained during its service life. A properly maintained industrial battery will give years of trouble-free operation. In industry, 1500 cycles translates to 5-6 years of service. In a seasonal application that life span in terms of years of service can increase considerably due to significantly less cycles of service per year.
