What is a good way to make Kadee wheelsets work with block detectors, like the NCE BDE20?
Replace Them! The Kadee wheel sets are what look like sintered irol wheels with plastic axles/axle ends(non-magnetic for the uncoupling ramps). I-M has nice metal wheel sets that can be converted to detection with SMD resistors, or you can buy pre-made detection wheel sets from several of the signal suppliers.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Jim, I have about 200 Kadee wheelsets, would like to keep using them. Is it to much trouble to make them work with block detectors?
Jim, are you saying the KD wheels won't work at all or just more difficult due the plastic axle?
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
You only need one detected wheel set per car. The wheel sets that you remove can be sold on eBay. People are always looking for metal wheel sets to replace their plastic ones.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
I have a couple of Kadee cars I run on the club layout, where detection is required. I added a resistor the same way I did with all my other metal wheelsets, which are almost 100% Proto 2000. Metal wheels, plastic axles. a drop of CA secures the resistor on the axle, and cunductive silver paint completes the circuit from each resistor connection to the wheel. Was no more difficult for the Kadee wheelsets than the others.
IM's may be easier than those, because basically all you have to do is stand the resistor on an angle across the insulator on the insulated side, and drop in a little conductive paint, vs spreading it across the whole axle. But even on those proto and kadee wheels, when measuring the completed product on my test track (just to be difficult, a piece of brass snap-track, clipped to my meter), they come up pretty much right on the button for the resistor value, despite the long trails of silver paint. I also then spray over that with some cheap flat black, to hide the silver paint and protect it.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Who has the conductive paint? Also read something about resistance paint, will this work in place of the resistors?
In my opinion if you are going to do the resistor thing you'd be better off getting new wheel sets. It appears to me that whatever Kadee uses to blacken the wheels is non-conductive. So you are going to have to polish the wheel threads. I believe that some of that same blackening is on the back faces of the wheels. So you'd have to polish the spot on the back where you would bond the resistor.
Also, from what I saw at the club I belong to is that the Kadee wheels like to attract dirt, to the point where the wheel fillet disappears and derailments occur. I sympathize with you over the number of wheelsets you have, but sometimes you have to get beyond the past and move on to better things.
Hmm, interesting, I haven't heard that. The seem as smooth as any other wheels I have. I always polish my wheel treads anyway - real railroad cars that actually move may have dirt and grime on the sides of the wheels,. but the tread where it rolls on the rails is always very shiny. I have a 'wire' brush that isn't metal for my Dremel and it makes quick work of the wheelset.
The solver paint I got, I got in eBay - it's actually sold for use with electron microscopes. Next time I'm spending more and getting a higher percentage of silver, but the thing to remember is this stuff is NOT cheap, I think I paid $30 for a whole 5ml. But I've done 100 wheelsets and it's not gone yet - the thing to remember is DO NOT SPILL IT.
rrinkerHmm, interesting, I haven't heard that. The seem as smooth as any other wheels I have. I always polish my wheel treads anyway - real railroad cars that actually move may have dirt and grime on the sides of the wheels,. but the tread where it rolls on the rails is always very shiny.
I wasn't sure, so I checked with a meter before posting. Of course maybe I messed up, but I did check a couple times.
rrinkerthe thing to remember is DO NOT SPILL IT.
The real thing to remember is to not apply so much that it bridges across the ends of the resistor and creates a short. An acquintance of mine got in a hurry and did a whole bunch of wheelsets using an improper procedure. The minor problem he had was he had a cut of cars on a non-electrified track. When he finally got around to applying power, he melted a bunch of truck side frames.
The major problem he had was he actually burned down an Atlas tank car. He has a set of tracks that run behind the desk in his work area. He was working and smelled smoke. He turned around and saw the car smouldering. I saw the car after. All that was left was what looked like a caboose underframe with a bunch of melted stuff on top, and some melted trucks underneath. The Kadee couplers were angled up at about a 30 degree angle.
I did throw a quarter on the tracks where the car had been sitting, and the booster did trip. So apparently the short had high enough resistance to not trip the booster but allowed enough current to pass for things to get very hot.
Well, yeah, I guess that's important too. But I don;t install mine on the car, I use a wheel painting jig and fix the resistors on, then do the silver paint. Then I set them on my test track connected to the meter to see if they work - if the meaure around 10K (I use 10k resistors, 2 axles per car, for a 5K per car - the detectors we use work down to 15k. Others put a single 4.7K on their cars, but this way, if a car is half in oen block and half in another, I'm detected in both). If it shows open - usually just needs more silver paint. If it shows a short, probbaly bridged the resistor with paint, but I haven't had any of those.
Scary the first time, but the paint doesn;t really conduct until it dries, so testing right after the paint was applied, I was getting opens on every single one. An hour later, ones sitting on the test track showing infinite resistence suddenly started showing 10K.
Once it tests out, and giving the silver a day to dry, then I spray the whole thing flat black to hide the shine. And on the test track again. If they still work, they get put back on the cars they came from, or in the drawer of ready to use resistor wheelsets.