LGB switch -v- USA diesels

[kimbrit]

In the last few weeks I have spent nearly £500 on LGB radius 5 switches only to find that USA diesels don't like them one bit. GRRRRRRRR!!! When coming off the diverging rail into the switch the gap in the frog is big enough for the sprung slide pick up to drop into and it knocks hell out of the opposite side of the frog to get back to rail height, in fact after only a couple of passes you can see the cuts in the plastic. The LGB instruction booklet gives warning as to non LGB wheel sets may derail but says nothing about the pick ups. GRRRRRRRRR!!! Running through on the straight seems to be ok. Every other loco is fine, LGB obviously, Bachmann, my Aristo mike, just USA. I'm going to fashion an insert to drop into the frog to lift the pick up and see how it goes, or I'll just run them on the main straight. You have to love this hobby, or is it fixation??

Cheers,

Kim

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Kim,

Do a bit of research, I seem to recall hearing that usa engines are wired such that the sliders are redundant.   Something like they are wired so that they also use the wheels as pickups, and you can just remove the sliders.

Maybe if you take a couple of test leads to the wheels and it runs, then you remove the sliders and your problem goes away!

[kimbrit]

Hi Bob,

Yes, I was looking at that as well last night and I'll explore when I get home, better than doing inserts that's for sure. I checked out the manuals for my USA's but nothing about it. I'll let you know.

Cheers,

Kim

[smcgill]

Replace the USA sliders with LGB sliders.

Remove screws holding truck cover / remove and replace.

The LGB sliders have the curl to them and are thicker.

I think this should work.

But ...switch sliders that you allready have and see if it will work.

 

[piercedan]

Definately repalce the USA sliders with the LGB ones.

 This is a known issue even on the other R1/R3 switches. 

[kimbrit]

Thanks for this guys, Bay Models have sliders in stock so it's 4 loco's worth to buy, does this spending ever stop??!!

Kim

[Benjamin Maggi]

How about you try this. Remove the USA sliders for sure, then run your equipment and see if it stalls or stutters from the lack of the extra pickup. You might not even need the sliders. However, if performance drops so much from removing then USA ones then you might be justified in purchasing the LGB ones.

Don't spend until you see if you need them!

[kimbrit]

I've actually re-laid the track to keep the main on the straight, runs through as sweet as anything. I do have to watch the spending at the moment as I've probably done a grand so far this year. My pc has now come back from repair with a new hard drive so I'll post some pics of the new set up this weekend.