Does anyone out there have any advice on these engines made by Mantua for Model Power. It seems as though the electrical pickup is only through the tender and very poor at that. The motor itself seems good and smooth running, but I am having very poor luck with the electrical pickup. Anybody out there have a similar problem or suggestions on improving the electrical pickup? Thanks.
First of all, I don’t believe they’re made my Mantua, I think they’re made in Korea by Ajin.
Electrical pickup is both by tender (one wheel on each axle) and by the drivers. But electrical pickup problems are typical.
There have been a number of threads over on the Atlas N scale forum regarding detailed fixes, mostly involving something like replacing the tender trucks with Kato tender or caboose trucks (which have all wheel pickup) and then wiring the new trucks into the tender. Not as easy as it sounds, but doable (if you can get ahold of the trucks).
Try searching over on Atlas (or Trainboard) N scale forums for some of the recent threads. If you can’t find them I can find links and post them.
Regards
Ed
Thanks. I’ll look there. You are probably right about the manufacturer. Warranty/registration says Model Power/Mantua, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they make the engines. For some reason, I’m not getting any pickup through the drivers. Very strange.