I have an Athern Gensis USRA 2-8-2 (G9013) that has electrical contact problems. It has a Soundtrax LC decoder. Whenever it crosses a turnout or any other small track defect, such as a rough rail joint, it looses electrical contact briefly. This causes loco to stop and sound is momentarily interrupted. Other locos, steam and diesel, run fine on same track. It’s a nice looking loco. Just don’t try to run it. Any suggestions on how this can be improved?
The electrical contacts that pick up power for the motor are small bronze wipers that rub on the insides of the drive wheels. Turn the locomotive upside down and check the insides of the drive wheels for cleanliness, and clean them with track cleaner or rubbing alcohol if they appear to be dirty. Also check for wipers that have gotten bent out of shape and aren’t touching the insides of the wheels. Push each drive axle from side to side and watch that the wipers don’t lose contact with a wheel. If they do, adjustment is necessary, but disassembly is going to be necessary to get to the wipers.
Also be sure to check the wired running from each wheel set, sometimes they get broken and appear to be fine, so I would just give a gentel tug on the wire to make sure it is securley connected.
Also, with a non-sprung (?) set of drivers, any defect in your track, such as a change of vertical angle from join-to-join, even if only 0.5%, could jar or lift the loco enough to dislodge the wipers, or to even lift the powered wheels enough that the sound is temporarily stopped. The nice folks at QSI include capacitors for just that reason. My BLI 4-6-4 does not cut out during momentary breaks, and I KNOW I must have them here and there.
This loco does not have the side wipers “cacole” is describing. Have since taken bottom cap off driver bearings (very delicate job) and learned each axle has a bronze bearing on each side that has a small spring underneath it. These eight bearings seem to be the electrical pickup. One spring was missing. Never before opened it - so it must have come that way. I replaced with a Kadee coupler spring that is close in size. Parts breakdown does not show the springs. (Curious. . . why?) Loco is about 8 years old, but seldom used to the above problem. “Selector” may be on to something with the capacitor. Anyone out there know what value would be appropriate? Anyone else got one of these locos?
Very sorry, but I am at my limit on this. Randy Rinker (rrinker) may respond to this…he usually dives in on this type of question, but later in the day. If he does, take what he says at THE WAY. [^]