2429 Livingston Passenger Car

[Civil War]

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Thanks to all who clewed me in to how to remove the roofs of my passenger cars so I could repair the wiring. I have still not figured out how to get those truck clips off, there must be a trick to that one. I was able to replace the broken wires with the correct 22 ga flex wire and got the lights working again. Now they work, but flicker. I am wondering if the pick up roller could be the culprit. The bulbs seem to be ok and burn brightly when the train is standing still with the power on. They only flicker when the train is moving, and none of the other cars act that way. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[steinmike]

Terry:

I've had some success using a small screwdriver to gently open the arms of the horseshoe a bit, just enought to loosen it up so that I can then get the tip of the screwdriver between the closed end of the clip and the pin coming up from the truck.  Gently twist the screwdriver and the truck clip should pop off.  To replace the clip, push it back on the truck and gently squeeze the open arms with a needle-nose plyers.

Flickering lights when the car is in motion indicates that either the roller is not remaining in contact with the center rail or that the wheels have become dirty and are no longer making consistent contact with the outside rails.  Clean the roller and the wheels and the flickering should go away.  If it doesn't, you might have a weak spring on the roller.  One way to test is to remove the roof on a car that you know to be good and use a jumper wire from the good car to the car with the flickering lights - that will help isolate whether the problem is with the roller or the contact with the outer rails.

Good luck!