Do your American Flyer Pick-up Wheels Spark?

[Sturgeon-Phish]

Whenever the track or the pickup wheels are dirty. The momentary break in connection makes a spark. Cleaning the track and wheels makes a big difference

Jim

[richhotrain]

Whenever the track or the pickup wheels are dirty. The momentary break in connection makes a spark. Cleaning the track and wheels makes a big difference

Jim

Tim,

Same here, as with Jim, dirty wheels. Why do you ask?

Rich

[richhotrain]

I was wondering if someone was going to ask me why I was so interested in posting such a seemingly dumb question. -Timboy

[#oops]

[Anonymous]

Tim,

Some sparking is normal. I find that it can be minimized by keeping the wheels and rails clean. To take things a step further, I polish the pickup wheels with either Brasso or Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish on a felt buffing wheel in the Dremel whenever I do an overhaul. It seems to make a difference.

You migh have some sparking with your block setup if the transformers aren’t outputting exactly voltage as the train moves from one block to another due to the resulting fault current.