Protocab - About to produce control for N Gauge locos

[davecttr]

I think the answer lies not with batteries but enhanced "stay alive" systems.

A radio system for comms makes a lot of sense and can be miniaturised effectively but the power delivery should take advantage of the rails being there to keep a super capacitor charged up on a semi constant contact. You would only need to send power to the rails and not have to worry about the more complicated elements of dcc wiring like points, return loops and track circuits. as you would only wire up the regular track lengths.

There you have it, glimpse of the future. Substitute a battery for the capacitor and you have exactly what you suggest. Bluerail do it with their system but not for 'N'. No auto charging of the battery in the powered sections yet. I don't think they have thought of it !. As an example the 'fiddly' bits of my layout are about a third of the track run. This can triple the endurance of the onboard battery.

[Old Crow]

I think this is interesting and worth further consideration. Like cars I think "hybrid" would work well - ie you have a battery being constantly charged. I can see it might not suit everybody but I'd have no problem with fixed rakes including batteries. Where can I find out more about this system?

[NinOz]

Mention battery power and everyone thinks Li Polymer battery and the vastly overstated chances of fire.  Most likely commonly deployed because of the ease of manufacture of varying forms of the prismatic cell and light weight.
Could use Lithium Iron battery (A123 battery type) for fast charge rate (8C and higher) and low hazards (no self sustaining decomposition and fire). 
Other chemistry batteries available or under development so don't write the battery power option off as yet.

CFJ

[davecttr]

I think this is interesting and worth further consideration. Like cars I think "hybrid" would work well - ie you have a battery being constantly charged. I can see it might not suit everybody but I'd have no problem with fixed rakes including batteries. Where can I find out more about this system?

Here you go, be warned, lots of stuff and can be geeky. Have a general browse.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/228-radio-control/

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/95379-bluerail-trains-bluetooth-locomotive-control/

http://www.freerails.com/view_forum.php?id=45

http://bluerailtrains.com/about-bluerail/

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

http://www.on30guy.com/

https://riksrailway.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/programing-deltang-receivers.html

https://www.protocab.com/welcome

[davecttr]

Mention battery power and everyone thinks Li Polymer battery and the vastly overstated chances of fire.  Most likely commonly deployed because of the ease of manufacture of varying forms of the prismatic cell and light weight.
Could use Lithium Iron battery (A123 battery type) for fast charge rate (8C and higher) and low hazards (no self sustaining decomposition and fire). 
Other chemistry batteries available or under development so don't write the battery power option off as yet.

CFJ

By A123 do you mean AA, AAA etc?. Lithium Iron is interesting because a cell outputs approx. 3 volts compared with NiMh's 1.2. Are there AAA sizes available?