[danpuckett]

My grandson had a 20+ year old plastic battery powered train. The control was an IR system no longer worked. The train has two circuits; one for bell and whistle and the other for motive power. Each circuit is powered by 3 "c" cell batteries (4.5 volt). I stripped out the old control circuit board and purchased a simple remote controlled 12 Volt 4 relay circuit board. The 4.5 volts would not power the relays, so I put a 9 volt battery for powering the control board. I wired it all up, plugged the tender (holds batteries and control board) to the engine and it runs great. The 12 volt board has 4 circuits so I can run bell and whistle and motive power. I am having a problem with traction on the engine. May need to add some weight. The wheels spin just trying to pull the tender.
It was a very fun project and utilizing this little 12 volt relay board with remote control is giving me lots of ideas. I do need to figure how to reverse the train. Any ideas??

 

[Tom_C]

So I assume the remote control board has 4 functions that you can control remotely... and those functions have their own relay?

If that is true then you could one of the spare function relays to switch another DPDT relay that would reverse motor power.

 

[CTValleyRR]

The wheel spin is likely caused by insufficient weight. Did you replace 3 cells with one 9 v in the loco? If so, you lost several ounces of weight that you will have to put back in somehow (tons of options, from stick on hobby weights to fishing sinkers to automobile wheel weights).

It also might be caused by too much friction, or something dragging on the bottom of the loco. Do all non-powered wheels (especially those on the tender) roll freely? Are they in gauge (that is, they are the right width for the rails)? Look under the train and see if anything is catching.

 

[danpuckett]

Battery Powered Train

All of the batteries are in the tender. Would be better if they were in the engine, but not so. I am going to try lead weights on the engine. I was also thinking about trying to add batteries to the engine, but that looks like a destructive path.

 

[CTValleyRR]

All of the batteries are in the tender. Would be better if they were in the engine, but not so. I am going to try lead weights on the engine. I was also thinking about trying to add batteries to the engine, but that looks like a destructive path.

So another possibility is that the coupling between the tender and the loco is pushing down on the back of the loco and lifting the wheels enough to sabotage traction (I've had that happen with an HO steam loco). Make sure the drawbar and link pins aren't bent.

If you push down on the loco while the wheels are spinning, does it gain traction? Does the tender pop up a bit? This may be your problem, especially if the loco wasn't stored carefully.