I have a new brass pair of tender trucks, some assembly required. So how do I paint these, and maintain electrical continuity from the wheel tread to the tender body bolster? Thank you very much.
If you're spray painting, place a small piece of masking tape on each area that needs to make contact (bearings, bolster, attachment points). Once you're done painting, peel the tape off. That's really about all there is to it!
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I brush paint all my trucks. Just be careful where the paint ends up.
It doesn't hurt to add weight to the tender. It does help with electrical pick up.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
You maintain electrical conductivity by not going through the brass sideframe, or worse, microarcing through the bearings, at all.
Wipers to the back of the wheels give you a return path per axle; you can make contact with the axle for pickup on the uninsulated side which probably gives better contact but return will have to be via a different truck appropriately insulated.
Lots of threads here on various ways to do proper pickups and then maintain them; I expect to see many repeated (and illustrated) here.
OvermodYou maintain electrical conductivity by not going through the brass sideframe, or worse, microarcing through the bearings, at all.
ALL of my brass steam locomotives pick up through one rail on the tender. No wipers, just through the axle bearings, sideframe, bolster, to the tender frame/body.
In all the videos I have watched on upgrading brass locomotives, no one adds wipers to the tender trucks UNLESS they want to add pick up to the other rail.
SeeYou190 Overmod You maintain electrical conductivity by not going through the brass sideframe, or worse, microarcing through the bearings, at all. ALL of my brass steam locomotives pick up through one rail on the tender. No wipers, just through the axle bearings, sideframe, bolster, to the tender frame/body.
Overmod You maintain electrical conductivity by not going through the brass sideframe, or worse, microarcing through the bearings, at all.
Rich
Alton Junction
I looked at the instructions for my Bowser 2-8-0.
It also has tender pick up for one rail. No wipers. All the current flows through the truck side frames.
SeeYou190 I looked at the instructions for my Bowser 2-8-0. It also has tender pick up for one rail. No wipers. All the current flows through the truck side frames. -Kevin
That's common for most kits from Bowser, Mantua/Tyco and Varney, as well as most of the brass steam engines I've seen. Electrical pickup relies mostly on contact from the trucks to the frame without wipers. It usually works fine, but I've added wipers now and then to improve them if there's trouble maintaining good contact.
On the smaller trucks, a quick way is to buy an Athearn Truck that is all pre-wired. But adding wipers to a plastic truck is fairly easy. The three axle trucks are more of a challenge. I've been successful using old plastic 3 axle Rivarossi trucks.
Simon