MTH's Railking track wiper problem.

[spikejones52002]

Has anyone found a correction for the rail wiper MTH Railking insists on installing on their engines. The rail wiper drops into the frog of Aristo Craft switches. Then it short between the rails and blows the fuse of power transistor.

After several blown fuses. I noticed that the wiper drops down into the frog.  When the engine is directed to the straight track.  I thought by placing a small piece of plastic tubing onto the wiper's retainer screw to limit the drop of the wiper. That would keep the wiper from dropping so far. That did not work.

All my MTH engines the wipe drops a lot.

I adjusted the piece of tubing until the wiper just rests on the railhead. I started out by cutting   00.130 th of an inch of tubing. I assembled the wiper. I placed a ruler on the truck wheels. I checked the differance height between the wiper and wheel tires. I removed the retainer screw. With the tubing on the screw. I rolled the tubing as i pressed on an Exacto knife. I trimmed until the wiper just had contact with the ruler.

When I run an engine away from track split. the engine run through the frog good. When I attempt the run into the split straight to straight. The wiper drop and jams into the rail stubs and shorts.

I do not know why MTH does not do away with the rail wipers and place tire brushes on all wheels.

 Someone on the forum suggested Aristo Craft has a fix for the frog shorting problem. Aristo ahs not responded to my letters.

[spikejones52002]

Today I removed the rail wipes from my two GG-1s and Triplex. I installed Aristo wheel brush units to the center wheels on the GG-1s, and the rear drive wheels on the three drive trucks on the Triplex. I also interconnected the wiring of the two drive trucks.

I do not have any stalls even at the slowest speeds. The engines do not die traversing the track cross over switches.

The best thing no more blown fuses.

I ordered several packages of ART 29402. I will upgrade all my MTH engines.

[Greg Elmassian]

 There is no fix for the Aristo frog shorting problem, because there is no problem with the Aristo switch , it's the sliders that cause the problem. Some people suggest nail polish to insulate the rails where the sliders can touch the wrong one, but that's a poor solution and temporary at best.

Some people slice through the rails to make more insulated sections, but the rail "pieces" are not well supported. 

 You will have more problems with a crossing... you cannot get MTH locos with sliders through a low angle crossing section.

Getting rid of the silders is the best option in my opinion. I remove all the sliders from my USAT locos.

 Regards, Greg

[spikejones52002]

Yes the rail sliders are a problem.

Problem Aristo Craft also have rail sliders.

I have the same problem with Aristo's SD-45,  Rs-3, Pacific, Mikado, RDC.

I did not know the exact reason. Now I do. The slider drops down into the frog and shorts when it hits both rails.

ARISTO WAS NEVER ANY HELP.

THEY JUST IGNORE ALL MY LETTERS.

[DMUinCT]

spikejones52002

Yes the rail sliders are a problem.

Problem Aristo Craft also have rail sliders.

I have the same problem with Aristo's SD-45,  Rs-3, Pacific, Mikado, RDC.

I did not know the exact reason. Now I do. The slider drops down into the frog and shorts when it hits both rails.

ARISTO WAS NEVER ANY HELP.

THEY JUST IGNORE ALL MY LETTERS.

  I can understand that, they must be confused.  If you have "Sliders" on an Aristo-Craft locomotive someone else put them there.   Aristo use a unique gear box setup, each drive wheel has its own worm and gear.  They use a split axel with a nylon gear between and has a pickup wiper on the axel wiping the inside of each wheel giving it "all wheel" pickup without sliders.  To clean and lub, spray some (Aristo Reccomended) CRC 2-26 (Home Depot) on the axel pickups.

  This unique setup started when the SD-45 was introduced as a special for club members.  It was designed into the Mikado, added to a revised Pacific, then the -9, a revised RS-3, E-8 etc. 

 By the way, I agree, I have nothing but trouble with the MTH Sliders.  In some cases the are fastened into plastic parts and get torn off when they snag.   I've added USA replacement Wheel Pickups to get around the sliders on some steam locomotives. The diesels sliders seem to work well.

[two tone]

Hi,   Address your email to Lewis Polk  for his personel attenion you will get a responce because the people who are paid to do a job are falling down on it, and will get a boot where it hurts.    Give it a try