I think it was only the earliest Life-Like (pre-Walthers) 0-8-0s that didn't have the tender pickup. I bought one of them when they first came out and never got it to run decently. Seems to me I contacted Walthers a few years later to find out if the trucks with power pickup were available separately, and they weren't. However, as noted, I guess it's not too hard to add pickups to the trucks.
With my engine, after years of being stored unuseable, I recently installed one of the new TCS "Keep Alive" decoders in it. It runs great now, even thru turnouts and at very slow speeds. Nothing short of miraculous, given before it would only run for a few driver revolutions before stalling and needing a push.
Ward
The plastic tender floor has slots in it to run the wires from the trucks up into the tender shell.It seems the tender was designed to have pickups on the tender trucks but they were never added to the 0-8-0. If you remove one of the tender trucks you will see the slots.Your 0-6-0 most likely had factory tender truck pickups.So far all the Proto 0-6-0s I have seen have had them.
As for ready to use trucks with the pickups in place I am not sure what is out there.I never really looked when I did mine two 0-8-0s.I just added pickups to the existing trucks.You could try looking through the Walthers catalog and see what is listed there.If I remember right there are a couple of companies that sell pickup kits.
Wayne Reid
Ontario,Canada
Thanks Wayne,
wwird the 060 would have no issues , but the 080 does. I think the first link you sent seems to be the better way of doing it, where do you run the wire from the truck up to the decoder? also are there powered trucks that can be bought and those replaced?
thanks!!
ward
It sounds like you need to add tender ppickups.I have a proto 0-8-0 with a tsunami sound decoder and had running problems as well.Once i added some pickups to the tender trucks it now runs great. The following web sites show how one can add pickups to the tender trucks.
http://www.model-railroad-infoguy.com/Proto-pickup.html
http://www.nmra.org.au/Hints/Pickups/Pickups.html
http://www.westportterminal.de/tender080.html
Wayne R
Look in the Tsunami user's guide, the number of flashes (there's also an LED on the decoder itself that will flash) indicate the error code. There is something wrong - a short, overheat, or some other problem.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I had a similar problem with a Tsunami and a diesel model. I cleaned the wheels and the problem went away.
Hope this helps.
Mark
hello,
i have a tsunami decoder tsu 1000 installed in this loco it seems to run ok until all of a sudden the front and rear headlights flash , it stop and goes. i tried resetting it, same thing, I have an mrc system and also have the tsunami programming booster, any one know why this thing would flash and stop and then go? very weird. thanks for any info anyone may have.
thanks