?Add a pickup to Wisc Central 3547 tender?

[Boyd]

I've had my Wisconsin Central set since December 2004 and have maybe 2 hours on it. The engine loses contact easily and just stops. And that is with not much length of track. All the track is Fastrack and has the same amount or less hours on it. I've wondered about adding a pickup to one truck on the tender. How hard would it be to do this or should I do something else?

[iguanaman3]

You shouldn't need an extra pickup unless you are stalling on switches. Have you tried cleaning your track and pickup rollers? Get some Scotchbrite pads and clean the tops of the rails till they are shiny, it will make a big difference.

Neil

[Roger Bielen]

If you decide to add the pick up Train America Studios, www.tastudios.com, has the roller assemblies and tethers. The biggiest problem is selecting an assembly for the style trucks on the tender.

[lionelsoni]

Most of my tenders have pickups, either already there for the whistle or that I have added, connected to the locomotive. Sometimes you can transplant a pickup assembly from a lighted car. For example, I moved the pickup from a General train from the baggage car (which seemed unlikely to have a light) to the tender. You can make a single-wire tether connector with a pair of loose connector pins. Just solder or crimp the pins to the wires and cover all but the business end of the male pin with shrink tubing. Put the female on the locomotive so that if you ever run it without the tender you won't get a short circuit when it falls on the track.

[Chris F]

Boyd, I agree with Neil that your first step should be to clean the track.

Since Lionel's website doesn't show any WC steamers cataloged since 2001, I'm guessing yours is from an uncataloged starter set (Mendards or Hobby Lobby, maybe). Guessing further, it's a 4-4-2 with its typical square-top tender with 4-wheel trucks.

If so, the tender's front trucks probably are P/N 9150-85. A pickup assembly, P/N 9050-150, is available to snap into the bottom of these trucks. The assembly should be available from a Lionel Service Station; it is available direct from Lionel for $4.00.

That's a lot of guessing on my part, but it doesn't look like it would cost a lot to find out.[:)]

[Boyd]

I hadn't thought of it when I posted this subject, but the tender has a whistle and thus has a pickup in it. I've ran the engine some more and its running better but still stalls now and then. Doesn't the scrubby pads damage the metal coating on the rails?