Remote Control and Battery for Fowler

Finally after very long time and a lot of frustrations my second loco can now move under its own power. The Fowler F 30 from Essel Enginering has been fitted with a new control system and battery. Now traffic can finally take off to new heights on the 1/19 scale model of the 600 mm gravel line at Nystrup Gravel.

For the real Nystrup Gravel company the arrival of the Fowler in 1934 meant an increase in capacity. The Fowler could pull longer trains than the smaller Danish built locos.

As delivered the Essel Engineering Fowler was equipped with a huge battery pack and manual control via toggle switches in the cab and chimney. That's probably not too bad on a garden railway with few directional changes and long or continuous runs. On a very short layout manual control is (in my view, at least) unpractical, even if the chimney speed control on the model worked fine. Having had good experience with the RC equipment built into my little Lister it was my plan to fit the Fowler with RC gear from RCTrains. Despite being quite a patient guy, I simply gave up waiting for an RC-receiver. Having been e-mailing back and forth with RCTrains regarding the order since July 2022 without any results to show for the effort, I looked for an alternative. Now the Fowler has been fitted with a Maxi unit from Loco Remote.

Testfitting the Maxi unit next to the motor.

While the RCTrains equipment works with a hand held RC transmitter and receivers in the locomotives much like the better known RC cars and planes, the Loco Remote design is based on a unit placed in the locomotive and a controller interface generated by the unit on a Wi-Fi device like a phone or tablet. Quite clever actually, meaning you only have to purchase the unit for the locomotive as most people have a Wi-Fi enabled phone these days. The Maxi unit consist of three prints with components assembled into a single 'brick' to be connected to battery and motor.  

Originally a huge battery pack protruded into the cab. Here seen before I dismantled it and the original speed controller (seen to the left of the motor).

The battery pack in the Fowler originally consisted of no less than 6 AA-batteries. A small layout like mine has no use for locos with neither the power or endurance as a garden railway and I cut down the battery size to a single rechargable 9 V battery. How I dismantled the Fowler was described in this blog post. I fitted the new Li-ion 9 V battery between the frames mounted transversely between the axles. The battery was simply fastened to the loco's underside with double sided tape. I used a standard click-on connection to the battery's poles and ran wires to a sliding switch under the cab floor.

Battery well hidden between the frames held in place with two pieces of double sided tape. The battery can be recharged in the loco via the USB connection.

The wires were routed to the sliding switch under the footplate through a hole in the scratch built cab floor via a small fuse. From there wires were run to the Loco Remote Maxi under the bonnet. The inside of the bonnet was covered in insulating tape to avoid accidental contact with the electrical components. The motor terminals were then connected to the Maxi and that's all the wiring needed on the loco. I will be installing lights on the locomotive later and wires are of course needed for that, too.

Switch and wires fitted under the cab floor connecting battery and Loco Remote Maxi unit.

Protective plate fitted under the model's rear end. Makes sure no wires snag on my prototypically bad and overgrown track.

Loco Remote Maxi unit mounted between motor and gear box cover. I covered the inside of the bonnet with insulating tape, but the Maxi unit fits perfectly and could possibly work risc free without. But better safe than sorry!

The business of connecting the unit installed on the loco with the controller interface on my phone worked out without any problems at all. I simply followed the guide from Loco Remote and everything worked exactly as laid out in the instructions. I guess anyone with a modern phone could do this - my 80 year old dad included.

Happy moment on Nystrup Gravel! The Fowler is moving smoothly along my home built track controlled by my phone. A true breakthrough for my small model railway.

With functuality and power established I'm now moving on with detailing the Fowler to make it resemble the Nystrup prototype with all its small modifications.

Taking The Fowler Apart

As delivered the Essel Engineering Fowler is equipped with a huge battery pack and manual control via toggle switches in the cab and chimney. That's probably not too bad on a garden railway with few directional changes and long or continuous runs. On a very short layout manual control is (in my view, at least) unpractical, even if the chimney speed control actually worked fine. Having had good experience with the RC equipment built into my little Lister it was obvious that the Fowler also had to be remote controlled. 

Disassembly in progress. The large battery box with fuse and connecting wires is seen to the right. In the middel the electric motor and gear box. To the left is the handle for regulating speed.

The battery pack in the Fowler consisted of 6 AA-batteries. Testing the top speed showed that the battery pack could propel the loco a lot faster than it would ever be realistic on my model railway. With a small layout I also don't need the same endurance as a garden railway operator and I decided to cut down on battery size to a single 9 V battery. Testing showed that it produced at satisfactory top speed. In exchange for a reduced battery size I would have possibility to remove the large battery box in the cab, rebuild the cab area and fit a driver figure. See a short sequence from the initial running in of the locomotive in its original condition.

To remove the batteries and original control equipment I had to dismantle the model quite substantially. I first took off the cab by removing the screws in the rear buffer plate. Once the cab was removed the screws holding the large battery box in place were unscrewed and the box lifted off and toggle switches and charging socket removed. The chimney (exhaust pipe) was lifted off and the bonnet taken off. Then I removed the speed controller and was free to conduct final dismantling of the complete network of wires. 

Difference in buffer height between Fowler and standard skips. Something has to be done!

As I had the loco almost completely taken apart I took the chance to lower the buffer height as my stock of small skips obviously wasn't compatible with the original buffer height. I have now removed the buffers and will carefully drill new holes. While the rear buffer will present no obvious challenges the front buffer will need the front ballast weight modified. Looking forward to the work, though!

Rear buffer removed. New hole to be drilled for a lower buffer height.

Lister Power Supply

With no electricity to pick up from the rails my new loco in 16 mm scale relies on battery power. As I'm still a novice regarding battery power and eager to get the loco rolling, I have equipped my Lister with a single cell standard camera type battery. Battery technology and the associated circuits is a new game for me, so to cut down on mistakes, loss of hard earned money and avoid getting myself too challenged I chose a type of battery I'm used to handle.

Lister on its side. From left to right: Battery under rear foot plate, wires for receiver in seat/figure, motor and transmission (big word for such a simple thing!) charging socket and two pole switch mounted under/in bonnet.

The battery is a Li-ion Japcell JC123R 3.7 V 650 mAh.  It may not be cutting edge technology, but the battery has turned out to be able to provide power through my helplessly executed circuit to the Lister's motor and actually make the loco move. I consider that a success.

While I was shopping batteries I bought a BC-4123 charger as well. Battery and charger set me back 35 €. Not much for starting a gentle learning curve and should I continue using JC123Rs or other 16340 type batteries, the charger will see plenty of use.

'But if you have installed the battery permanently under your loco, how do you fit it in the charger' the attentive reader may ask. The battery is permanently fixed and it will not fit in the charger. To be able to charge the battery in the loco a socket is installed under the bonnet. A matching socket's two leads were soldered to a pair of crocodile clips. On one of the four stations in the charger I soldered small brass tabs on the contacts. I can now easily attach the crocodile clips to the tabs on the charger and charge the battery via the socket under the bonnet. May sound very old fashioned but it does really work.

Soldered tabs from scrap brass on one of the charger's four stations.

Crocodile clips are now easily attached. Charging can begin.

With a fully charged battery all I have to do is to flip the 2 pole switch next to the charging socket from charge mode to work mode, switch on the Tx-22 controller, select loco no. 3 (my only one so far), turn the speed knob and the loco moves. And I don't have to clean rail heads or wheel treads!

All the bits that make my Lister run.

Lister Running in Garden

One year after I started my first 16 mm scale kit I could celebrate taking my first loco in that scale in service. In 30 degrees C I laid a few track panels in a shady spot in the garden. With a single Hudson skip my I P Engineering Lister R made its first trip. Everything worked and the speed was easily controlled with the Tx22 controller.

Nystrup Gravel loco no. 3, a Lister R, pulling a single skip on a short provisionally laid garden line.

To celebrate the event I made a short film of the train traversing the 3 m of track. A short distance for the train but a giant leap for me. 16 mm scale, remote control and outside running, all new aspects in my modelling. See the short film below:

With almost every part attached to the loco I could no longer avoid getting the RC-equipment assembled and tested. With the instructions from RC Trains and the invaluable information available on the Peckforton Light Railway blog the proces proceeded without any trouble. With the cicuit finished I followed the instruction on how to bind the receiver to transmitter. Binding was easily achieved and with the transmitter on I could drive the motor and wheel assembly back and forth on the worktable.

The RC installation test assembled on the worktable. The RCT-Rx65c receiver can be seen fixed to the assembly in the lower left of the image.

With the electronic and mechanical matters functioning I was ready to prime and paint the loco and glue it to the motor unit. I used my favourite Chaos Black primer as I have found it to provide a good grip on most types of surfaces and to make a good foundation for the covering paints. The major colour is Vallejo Air's  71.285 'Imperial Japanese Army Dark Green'. It covered well on the primed parts and required only two light passes with the air brush.

Two images of the loco shortly before priming. During the building process I have added a number of home made parts far in excess of the number of kit parts I have used. Most are small details but seat box and floor plates are sizable items that are modelled on a Dutch Lister in the collection of the Decauville Smalspoor Museum in the Netherlands.

Detail painting was limited to the lids on petrol and oil tank and some decorative red on brake wheel and the gear lever.

After painting, battery and RC-equipment was fitted. It took some wrestling with wires and components, but in the end everything was fitted. Remaining work is now to finish painting the figure, adding weathering and a fixing a canvas cover for the open rear end of the bonnet. A few white metal parts for detailng is in the mail from Germany and I guess they will help to make my first 16 mm loco a good looking model once it is completely finished. Until then I will keeping enjoying running the loco on my provisional outdoor version of Nystrup Gravel. Fortunately the weather will stay hot and dry the next few days.

RC in a Lister

Even if the I P Engineering Lister isn't a fine scale model and the bonnet is a bit too large, I have been struggling to find room for battery and RC equipment. As the RC receiver finally arrived after a long wait, it was a bit too large for the location I had planned for it.

Hollow figure fitted on seat box giving me a chance to hide the RC receiver.

I had originally planned for the receiver to be fitted in the seat box, but the length of a RCT-Rx65c was too large to fit in the box. Remembering that large scale Modelu figures are printed hollow, I figured that the receiver could be fitted half way into the figure.

Having made the figure's bottom fit comparatively tightly to the seat box's removable lid, I glued the figure solidly to the lid with AC glue. With the glue dry, I took off the lid incl. figure and carved a rectangular opening through seat and the figure's bottom. Almost the entire receiver fits inside the figure.

Some parts for the loco are now finished and I have even primed the bonnet. The figure is patiently waiting for the AC-glue to harden.

Off with the lid on the box and an opening was quickly carved with my Dremel.

The figure almost swallows up an entire receiver. The wires will be held in the seat box and connected to battery and motor through a hole in the floor.

I'm currently picking up courage to solder up a test of the RC equipment and find out if I can assemble the circuitry and make it work before I pack it all away underneath the loco. As it is my first RC 16 mm scale loco I have no previous experience to rely on.