The Alville & Captown Railroad
The Power Station

Radio control is very nice. I have Aristocraft's Basic Train Engineer, 3 sets of the 27 MHz Train Engineer, and the Revolution Train Engineer. I started with the Basic TE and still use it at train shows and for my Christmas train.

The 27TE is used trackside for track power and one set is used in a battery car. To house the 2 trackside receivers and a power supply (Aristocraft Elite, 13-18-23 VDC) I built the portable power station. The antennas fold into the top of the box. They come from a set of TV rabbit ears. Small removable trays in the top can hold small parts or tools and also hold the transmitter. The space below the trays contains the wires from the power supply to the receiver, antenna, and from the receiver to a pair of banana jacks for connection to the track power feeder wires. The box was constructed of hardboard and pine from stock on hand. It was finished with two coats of polyurethane varnish.

I have a power outlet under my deck where I plug in the power station. An underground feed wire connects to the power station with banana plugs. The other end connects to the rails using a Split Jaw clamp. One clamp cut into 2 parts. I have only one feed point for the track. The voltage drop at the farthest point is not sufficient to be a problem.