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 Posted - January 30 2015 : 9:46:02 PM
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I love this lokie, but it has electrical pickup problems, made obvious by the flickering headlight as it's running. Currently, the engine picks up on one rail and the tender picks up on the other.
I have a few questions:
I'd like to add wipers on as many wheels that I can. Are better wheel sets available for both the tender and the front wheels on the engine?
Has anyone made pickup improvements to their own 4-6-0s? I'd love some details.
~ Dave
~ Dave
They're ALL toys
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Posted - January 30 2015 : 10:48:10 PM
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quote:Are better wheel sets available for both the tender and the front wheels on the engine?
Originally posted by RDC1Â -Â January 30 2015Â :Â 9:46:02 PM
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For the tender, Intermountain 33" wheel sets tend to work well in Mantua/Tyco trucks. They're all metal and insulated on one side between the wheel and axle.
For the pilot truck, I usually put Mantua tender wheel sets on that sort of pilot truck with the metal wheels on the right side of the engine and the plastic ones on the left. I hesitate to put metal wheels on the left because they could bump the cylinder or frame and cause a short. Most of your pickup on the engine is through the drivers, but it doesn't hurt to have a couple of more chances on the pilot truck.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - January 30 2015 : 11:45:59 PM
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Hey Dave, I've got a few of those 4-6-0's that I started getting a couple years back when I wanted to model a local railroad here that used 4-6-0's. But, I also wanted them to run well (e.g., nice and slow and realistic) and subsequently spent a good many hours taking them apart and cleaning and adjusting and putting them back together. Basically, what I found is that you can get them to run "fair" (certainly without a flickering headlight; that means faulty wiring or pickup and maybe most likely pickup) with pretty good pulling power. Here's some things I found that may or may not cause trouble:
Brushes are probably not a problem
Brush springs might be if they've been bent inappropriately (if brush has a bit of tension against the armature, it's probably OK; if it just kind of "flops", the spring is maybe bad)
Lead wire to terminal can be a problem. I see a bunch of them soldered, and I use to try and do that, but I always seemed to make a mess. And I found that just making sure I have a good wire with a clean tight end that will slip under the loop of the brush spring, then the brush spring will hold it just fine. And you can carefully also slip the headlight wire in as well. Just have to get use to manipulating all those pieces and wires when you put it together and take it apart.
Lubrication doesn't have anything to do with a flickering headlight, that I know of; could certainly have missed something there. But, old lube gets sticky and really you need to clean these things after several hours of use. Take it apart, alcohol bath, maybe gentle compressor blow dry, relube.
Tender connection is like taking the factory tender trucks apart; I found very gently prying with the fingers and then gently pressing them back together, or maybe even gentle plyers . . . bottom line, get the wheels out and clean the journals until they're shiny. Gently file off the truck bodies and the tender truck mount places for good electrical contact. Wheels scuffed shiny of course.
Ultimately . . . brass trucks and neodymium [rare earth] magnets will make it perform nicely. But, the bottom line is you should be able to get it to perform decent by cleaning up any mess the factory left for you.
I'll be interested to hear how you come out. I'm certainly not an expert (you'll probably get a bunch of folks tellin' you somethin' different . . . sort of like the way everyone approaches a computer just a bit differently; "now click there . . . "), but I like those 4-6-0's . . .
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Posted - January 31 2015 : 05:56:49 AM
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Thanks for the tips guys!
~ Dave
They're ALL toys
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