Electrifying plastic track

[legoman666]

I know copper and stainless steel foil tape has been tried with varying degrees of success. I myself have put SS tape on straights and curves. Straights are not too much of a problem, it's the curves I have issues with. The tape bunches up on the inner portion because of the radial differences between the inside and outside. It also eventually unsticks. The whole reason I want to do this is to electrify ME Models curves.

So I've been looking at products like http://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-Silver-Conductive-Container/dp/B005T8XACI to try instead. Does anyone have any experience with this? It says it'll adhere to ABS, so it'll stick, but I'm worried about it flaking or scraping off. I'd do a few layers to get it nice and thick. MG Chemicals also makes an electrically conductive epoxy that could probably be applied to the top of the track instead of paint.

[detjensrobert]

For ME Models, they are *eventually* going to offer metal track.

For regular track, that looks like a good solution, but it might wear off easy with the constant friction from the wheels.

[Aaron]

I gave up trying to electrify plastic track, and fully embraced power functions. Everything I tried (copper tape, steel tape, etc.) just wore down eventually.

[ProducePrincess]

I gave up trying to electrify plastic track, and fully embraced power functions. Everything I tried (copper tape, steel tape, etc.) just wore down eventually.

What was the life expectancy of the track? I've been considering getting into 9-volt with this technique.

I find it hard to embrace power functions when the battery box severely limits possible designs for small trains.

[lanesteele240]

What was the life expectancy of the track? I've been considering getting into 9-volt with this technique.

I find it hard to embrace power functions when the battery box severely limits possible designs for small trains.

Why not put the battery and reciver in a tender or car behind the engine

Edited May 28, 2015 by lanesteele240

[Ashi Valkoinen]

" it's the curves I have issues with. The tape bunches up on the inner portion because of the radial differences between the inside and outside. "

Why are you trying electrifying the outer side of the track? Since 9V motors pick up current from the inner side, you can simplify the problem putting the tape on the inner side and on the top, starting from inner side, and make little cuts on top, and for better look you can tape the outer side as well, but by conduction aspects only inner side will make sense.

[ProducePrincess]

Why not put the battery and reciver in a tender or car behind the engine

That's the only real solution a lot of the time. It just kinda sucks that the train will have to constantly be attached to that specific car. Visible wires going between the two cars is a eyesore as well.

Whats the life expectancy on 9volt motors and other components? Is it worth switching over for the long term?

[peterab]

Whats the life expectancy on 9volt motors and other components? Is it worth switching over for the long term?

I think that is highly dependant on how the motor is treated and exactly when it was produced. There are certainly 9V motors whose thermal cutouts are way too sensitive (simply removing them or replacing them can fix this). Some 9V motors seem to be able to take a beating including many hours of pulling heavy loads with no ill effects, others with similar treatment will overheat and never pull heavy loads reliably again. The PF motors seem to be far more consistent in their performance, and are currently far more available. If I didn't belong to a club that still uses 9V for displays I would not own any 9V, and still prefer to use PF whenever possible.

Edited May 31, 2015 by peterab

[zephyr1934]

That's the only real solution a lot of the time. It just kinda sucks that the train will have to constantly be attached to that specific car. Visible wires going between the two cars is a eyesore as well.

Whats the life expectancy on 9volt motors and other components? Is it worth switching over for the long term?

There are many other solutions for PF, depending on your needs.

If you have a 4 wide hood (or similar feature) you could bump it out to 4.8 using snotted tiles outside of the battery box- similar to the Maersk locomotive but you could use 1x6, 1x8 or 2x4 tiles. This approach has a bonus of looking like access doors on a diesel. I've built several 6 wide switchers with 5 wide hoods (9v) and I think the narrower running boards look fine, but it is in the eye of the beholder.

If you have a 4 wide feature or narrower with panels or snot that is long enough and you cannot make it wider, you can do a custom AAA battery box.

Same as above, but shorter and on a light train you can take a normal 9v battery an make a custom PF connector to it.

Failing all of that, you can make a separate power car, works great for detailed locomotives. Many of my steam engines already have this feature, albeit in the tender, e.g., my 9v Hiawatha and PF Pacific. I've also done it for a few diesels, e.g., with the power in the B unit on my North Coast Limited, but in this case I could not fit all of the PF components and the snotted nose in the same unit. These are examples of choosing an obvious power car and for most 9v steam engines you would have to go this route (if you had a 4 axle pilot or trailing truck you could slip a 9v motor in there). Of course you do not need to put the motors in a tender or B unit, you could put them in a boxcar or passenger car. In fact I did just that with the same propulsion design for the PF Pacific. I've found that a pair of 9v motors tops out around 10 cars for the trains I build whereas a pair of XL motors will first break the magnet couplings and then if you prevent that pull the cars off the curves before they max out. Now I can run long trains at shows on my club's 9v track without fear of burning out 9v motors.