Jol Wilkinson wrote:Ted,
small pre-group etched kit locos don't have much room and usually some of that has to have ballast in it. A battery may provide some of that but not enough on its own. Tender "bodies" tend to be unitary so can't be readily opened up. Some have relatively little useable space in them anyway (without fairly considerable modification), compared to the much larger tenders used later. It was this lack of space that deterred me from going over to DCC many years ago when decoders were too large to fit in readily.
A friend has been experimenting with R/C for several years but as a newcomer to railway modelling and with little experience of electronics he has found difficult in sourcing products to enable him to make much progress. Driving his small GWR RTR radio equipped loco on the kitchen table is an amusing experience though.
Jol
You are not
trying to be negative are you Jol?
How many 'small pre-group etched kit locos' have you built or even seen in 4mm scale?
One problem with the latest Li-Po batteries is that unlike the Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh that we are all used to is that they are lighter. Of course, sprung suspension helps a lot there, maintaining traction.
Almost all of the tender bodies in my collection come apart, leaving plenty of space for quite large batteries.
As for space, did you miss this at the time?:-
viewtopic.php?f=137&t=7113&p=78459&hilit=5+volt#p78459Scroll down to the dismantled Simplex - battery, Rx, sprung suspension - all in OO9! Please show me a smaller tender in 18.83.
Perhaps you should give this friend (if he isn't apocryphal) my email address, J.R. has it if you do not, for I would be delighted to offer him assistance.
Ted.