Now that I have a pseudo yard ladder, the (DCC equipped) 0-6-0T stops at my #4 Walthers /Shinohara code 83 frogs. I can see that the power to the left side comes from a set of wipers riding on the front two drivers only. I cannot see where the other side gets its power. I don’t want to power the frogs unless absolutely necessary.
Any suggestions?
The power for the right side is picked up by the three drivers which connect to the metal frame.
Rich
The other side most likely conducts from the wheels to the axles and then to the chassis of the locomotive thru the axle bearings.
Does the DCC stay “up”? Lotta DCC operators report momentary shorting across the tracks from conductive metal wheels touching the stock rail and the open point rail or across the frog. The short is just a brief thing , so brief to doesn’t bother plain DC power packs but shuts down the DCC.
Is the locomotive getting stranded on isulated frogs? Does the headlamp stay lit when it gets stuck? Could the bottom of the locomotive be hung up on something lifting the wheels off the track?
I would expect all three drivers to have wipers. Could one be broken/missing/bent? Do you have an exploded drawing of the locomotive? That shows three wipers or two wipers? Can you find one on the Mantua website? Or just by googling for Mantua and the model number. The 0-6-0 tank locomotives are short and all wheel pickup is very desirable on short ones to carry the locomotive over dead spots, plastic frogs and such.
I now have my tiny diesel switcher and it is so short it will not go through any of my dead frogs. I will either have to put additional pickups on both sides of both ends or power the frogs. You may be in the same situation.
The loco picks up with the front and middle drivers on the left side. Not much distance between the drivers. Sometimes power transfer on the right side from driver to axle to frame is not the best.
http://cs.trains.com/forums/866503/ShowPost.aspx
Rich
The Mantua 0-6-0T is definately an “old school” design. As others have speculated above, one side of the pickup is through the drivers to the frame and the other side is through the pickup you stated above. The original model, called the “Little Six” was originally designed in the early sixties, the breakdown looks like this:
http://hoseeker.net/assemblyexplosiontyco/tyco060littlesixpg2.jpg
Tank loco and short wheelbase pickup is iffy at best. My favorite little 0-8-0T came with wipers on two left-side drivers, #2 and #4. On the rough trackwork it encountered 30 years ago, it would frequently lose contact. The solution was to rig a contact set that drew power from all four insulated drivers.
That contact set finally failed a few months ago - worn out after years of faithful service. #42 is deadlined until I get around to fabricating a new set of contacts.
For longer insulated frogs, more contacts won’t help if the pickup wheelbase is shorter than the dead length of frog. That’s why I use live, all-metal frogs.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Tom, I think that loco goes even further back than early sixties: I got mine in 1958 and I believe that it was a used loco then. With brass drivers and the short wheelbase, it never was a particularly good runner, although “flat out”, it could power its way over short trouble spots. I still have it, although the frame, just ahead of the cylinders, has succumbed to zincpest. When I do re-build it, it’ll be with a new superstructure, new motor and gearing, and a tender.
Wayne
The ones I remember are from the 60’s with the plated drivers (chrome?). I built, and still have two of the 0-6-0T’s and three of the 0-4-0T’s. I occasionally get a stall over the frog of an Atlas switch, but running the 0-6-0T in a direction that the “V” pickup is on the side away from the frog will usually eliminate this.
For parts, the kits occasionally show up on Ebay, and if you’re patient enough, the frame itself may show up as well. That “HO Seeker” website has the breakdowns for a lot of the Mantua/Tyco locomotives, as well as many other manufacturers. It’s a handy reference if you do a lot of your own repair work.
I would suggest trying to power a frog on a turnout (particularly if you have one not already laid) and see if that makes a difference. I have an 0-6-0T (well OK it’s “Thomas”[:I]) that wouldn’t go thru turnouts until I powered the frogs, then it (he) was fine.
BB:
Make sure all the wheels are clean and the frog is flush with the railhead. If only one wheel is clean, then the loco will work fine until the clean wheel hits the frog, then conk out. Sometimes if the frog isn’t flush, it will lift the whole side slightly and break contact.
Best thing to do is run it slowly over the switch and watch closely to see exactly what is happening.
I know that the distance between the second and third driver is smaller than between #1 and #2, but maybe you could buy another pickup wiper and still get it to fit in between the rear drivers.
For some of us, it might be fun to design and build a new wiper system that fit on the bottom of the loco and wiped on the back of the drivers so that you wouldn’t have to see that “thing” (or two of those “things”) when you look at the left side. After all, if you’re going to have to do some mods, why not go a little farther.
Ed