Are there any ways for me to increase electrical pick-up on a brass locomotive that only picks up from 4 wheels (Wheels, NOT wheel sets). It only pulls power from two wheels on one side of one end of the locomotive, and two wheels on the opposite truck and side.

While i suspect there is more to it's poor performance, i think the track pickups warrant improvement. Is there anyway for me to fabricate some?

There have been a number of commercial products for pickups but I haven't noticed any for years.
One you can make yourself is a T shaped piece of metal -- phosphor-bronze for preference. The stem is mounted on the truck and the crossbar runs along the rail, the ends bent up so they don't catch. How you mount it depends on the truck. I suggest putting it on the dead side of the truck, between the insulated wheels and running a wire to the motor.
I think GH Products made another style: a piece of insulated material (bakelite? PC board might do) with a pair of pickups -- one for each rail. It was small enough to go between the wheels of a GP but possibly not an SD.

Tomar makes pick-up shoes, although you may also be able to make your own if you can find some phosphor-bronze strip material.
I installed a set of Tomar shoes on this Athearn switcher, even though it uses all eight wheels for current collection. Even with all wheels off the track, it'd keep going.


On this old John English steamer with brass driver tires, I added pick-up shoes to increase its reliability:




Wayne

See, it only took Wayne 11 minutes to make a set and post pictures!

11 Minutes?!?!?!?

Geeze - he's slowin' down!!

I use KD centering springs on trucks:

http://www.55n3.org/cars/tender_wipers/



Maybe they are adaptable.

Thank you if you visit
Harold

Harold...That's a great tutorial...!!
Just one question...How do you get the juice to where it needs to go..??

Solder leads to the pickups.

Harold

I am using the same method with very good results. In case of careful handling you might omit the screw and glue the pickups with CA to the trucks. You can see the soldered black wires. They go inside via new holes. The wires should be thin and flexible.



ps. I think I learned it from the same source. It was first demonstrated on some 0n30 equipment.

would brass strip work? i had some brass strip from another project. The way i figure it, there is enough space between the truck and the frame that i can run some stuff on TOP of the locomotive's truck. My idea was to lay down a VERY thin sheet of styrene, and bend/solder a few brass strips so that it runs down the length of the truck (on top of the insulating styrene), Creating a "bus strip".

Then I would have a couple brass strips would vertically hang down (but not touch the metal truck itself) and would be off-set so that the wheel isn't rubbing "across" the contact, but with it instead. i think this can be done without unrealistic pick-up shoes, or serious modification.


the coupler spring idea is also pretty good, but I'm not sure it would fit in the space i have. i can try though, that seems like a good idea.

I've come up with my own idea and it appears to have solved most of the problem. I think the decoder may still have issues, but the problem has been significantly decreased with the addition of these contact strips i made. I took one "bus" strip and bent it to match the contours of the truck, and soldered on three smaller contact strips. I bent it in such away that they always stay in contact.

doctorwayne Wrote:Tomar makes pick-up shoes, although you may also be able to make your own if you can find some phosphor-bronze strip material.
I installed a set of Tomar shoes on this Athearn switcher, even though it uses all eight wheels for current collection. Even with all wheels off the track, it'd keep going.
Wayne

I actually broke down and used the tomar shoes. there were areas of the truck i could drill through and and tap. I cut the screws and tomar shoes short after installation and filed the screw flush with the cover plate of the trucks. So far, this has totally eliminated all connectivity issues.

the tomar shoes are 100% easier than the crazy system i rigged onto 4457 above.

the apparatus i used above only BARELY improved things, but the tomar shoes have apparently done the trick. pics forth-coming.

For my Grandt Line 25-ton I've made my own pick up. I've used Kadee springs too.





There's only one problem. The pressure of the shoe must be very soft and the little critter is full with lead, besides the sound decoder. The engine has got a weight of about 100g. Here's my How I built it. http://www.westportterminal.de/grandtline_25ton.html

Wolfgang

Well-engineered and very nicely operating locos, Wolfgang, and a good-looking urban layout, too.

Wayne

Yeah, actually, the pick up problem and my E44s is again showing up. This time, having one pickup on each truck wasn't enough! In some cases, there was not track power "diagonally" across the two trucks, so i tried gluing thins plastic sheet to the bottom of the truck, then gluing another set of tomar shoes to pick up on the other side. The problem now is that they hang so low that they brush on track switches if there is a bump, and they are still vulnerable to imperfect track work. Its a major pain, i wonder if there is a way to wedge those kadee springs in the trucks in a more space effective way while still picking up current. I'll post pictures later.