Having thought about the issues with the electrical pickup of the Bachmann Class 150 that I posted about yesterday, my conclusions were keep it simple as to any solution. Some Googling had shown that the issues I was experiencing were not unique. One solution involved soldering wires from the bogie pickups to the circuit board contacts which is probably very robust. However, before breaking out the soldering iron I wanted to look at a couple of things. One was the wheels in the bogie and the pickups. Having tried to run the motor using a 9volt battery making contact with the wheels I noticed that the level of motor running seemed dependent on pressing the wheels in certain directions which indicates a pickup issue. Turning the chassis upside down, the bogie frames were removed.
What was revealed was not good! Lots of shiny oil.
It may be good for the gear wheels but was not good for the contacts! Both ends were the same. The excess oil was mopped up. The contacts and backs of the wheels cleaned with some contact cleaner. Then the bogies were put back together and the chassis turned right ways up. This allowed me to use masking tape to hold the circuit board contacts in place and permanently rubbing the bogie contacts.
Not sure how long this will last but it worked and the unit runs like a dream!
Whilst the bits were out of the box. I added snow ploughs and scale couplers to each end.
They made a big difference to the front end.
And on the layout it looks even better!
And this has given me the boost to get back to the bridge /tunnel structure! Just what I hoped!
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