18v Battery Power

I recently saw a post about 18v Battery Power being used on model trains as a source of motive power, the sort you might use on a drill or any 18v tool really. I did have a broken electric weed eater which I abused in wet conditions stupidly wrecking the motor (situated right near the blade & thus the air cooling method almost attracted the water). I salvaged the battery plugs & wired up a Radio R/C train controller which had an input voltage of between 6- 28vdc which I have been wiring up to various diesels. I did find a "Low cost Reversible Speed Controller 6 to 28V FC 3A" on Trademe for $10 from a chap in wellington and have so far used it on the Ka build, it lacks remote control so once she goes there's no stopping it, on the other hand there's no more having the train jerk on bad patches of track which caused considerable headaches and stole the "fun" away. This morning when testing the "Ka" I was able to straight away focus on lining up the wheels & correcting the wobble rather than scrubbing track clean of bird poop and then still having to go back over missed spots.

In the future I have a crazy plan of running a single track alongside the 7.25" starting from the other side of the shed following the 7.25  downhill, alongside the fence and perhaps once at the bottom a return loop initially, since its not going to be electrically live I'm thinking about cheaper rail alternatives such as aluminum rail or some L section of some material?

Ozito 18v

Dx easily makes room for the battery, with 2 motor bogies it lasts about 3-4 hours

The tender holds the battery, the single motor chassis lasted an hours running today and battery is 3/4 full, before I took the photo I wired up the carriage lights to the Ka, with the speed on minimum the lights turn on while the loco remains stationary.

Trademe $10 NZD Low cost Reversible Speed Controller 6 to 28V FC 3A

Pretty empty train for the school holidays, the lights need to be in the end corridors when running, and then also the main lights when at a station etc. Since the lights are 12v led strip that runs the entire length putting out way to much light I will reduce the light strip into small sections