I need to add electrical pick-ups to the un-powered bogie of a Jouef Eggerbahn railcar I got on eBay so it will traverse the horrible dead frog on my Tillig dual gauge points. The bogie wheelbase is 15 mm. Can society members recommend anything suitable?
Have a look at Kato 11-031 bogies
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kato-11-031-Coupler-DT21-Long/dp/B0003KC2OY
Thank you! That's a lot cleverer an approach than my original plan. (They do have pick-ups, I'm assuming?)
Quote from: Tom Haythornthwaite on March 14, 2014, 22:47
Thank you! That's a lot cleverer an approach than my original plan. (They do have pick-ups, I'm assuming?)
Oh yes, brass tags on top link to brass bearing pockets for wheels. 4-wheel pickup and very smooth running.
Excellent.
We tried the Tillig dual gauge points and found the dead frogs caused problems with virtually every four wheel loco. So in the end we did not use them and built our own duel gauge point with a moving frog. (Just like a stub point.)
But that will not help you.
Here are some photos of the Kato bogies:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F41c6ImfwG6L.jpg&hash=c8f9dd2e74f0772f60303d854f838d21b86a10c1)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fsunny-life.net%2Fpicture%2Fkato_other%2F11-031_b.jpg&hash=858349bda4bb2312c0a2be8df2221f7c8595e890)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdist.joshinweb.jp%2Femall%2Fimg%2Fsm%2FJSN_C00001%2Flarge%2F49%2F49727%2F4949727005218.jpg&hash=048d2871eff7589794ff95a8ea4e12282496a7a0)
I can confirm that the Kato bogies do have electrical connections to both sides. However getting them from a UK supplier may be a problem.
The contacts stick up in line with the outer face of the wheels so are about 12mm apart.
You will need to solder two wires on to these and the wires will need to be very thin multi strand type and very flexible otherwise the bogie will not turn as it should.
My experience with non powered wheels with pickups of this type is that they tend to get dirty somewhat quicker than driven wheels and that the contacts to the wheels also tend to get unreliable after a while.
But they should work well when new.
Brian Meldon
Thank you Brian. I hope one day I can tackle hand laying track and building points but not yet... It's enough that I will be cutting off and shifting the un-shared standard gauge rail of the points to S gauge which I will use to represent Indian broad gauge. (If you do the math it's almost perfect.) These points will be on each end of a short dual gauge causeway comprised of 009 track and a third rail plunked down to S gauge. Then actual S gauge track onwards in each direction for my broad gauge line, which will only be a background feature of my layout.
About the Tillig frog, fortunately my DHL Class B's wheelbase is long enough. Phew.
Thanks also for the further information and advice about the bogie. I had no difficulty finding them on Amazon.
Four more weeks until carpentry begins... (I'm in Libya at the moment.)
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The following is a bit off topic but it may be of intrest.
Yes I can fully appreciate your reluctance to make your own track.
The duel gauge point we have is a simple one with the 00/H0 track joining the 009/H0e track from the left.
It was not only the 009 locos that caused problems we also had issues with some of the larger flanges on the H0 stock as well, because of this in the end we had no choice, either have no duel guage point at all or make one that worked with everything.
It is the only hand made section of track on the layout, or indeed any of the layouts I have!
Here are a couple of photos:
First from above switched to the NG:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi663.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu358%2FM-e-l-l-o-w%2FWestdorf%2FWestdorfDualGaugePoint.jpg&hash=0ab3ee9a48ca1292e37368a873376f073a992657)
From underneath: (The relay is needed to switch the track power with the point.)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi663.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu358%2FM-e-l-l-o-w%2FWestdorf%2FDualGaugePointunderside.jpg&hash=529481ebdfa4d067724f68e70b8c5240c61dcf48)
Here is a diagram of mechanism:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi663.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu358%2FM-e-l-l-o-w%2FWestdorf%2FDuelGaugePointUnderside.jpg&hash=4072de6a5f170b8c90f409ba7e9fc9fcdcef3f00)
The point was built on a separate section of
Quote from: B.Meldon on March 15, 2014, 09:08
Here are some photos of the Kato bogies:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F41c6ImfwG6L.jpg&hash=c8f9dd2e74f0772f60303d854f838d21b86a10c1)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fsunny-life.net%2Fpicture%2Fkato_other%2F11-031_b.jpg&hash=858349bda4bb2312c0a2be8df2221f7c8595e890)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdist.joshinweb.jp%2Femall%2Fimg%2Fsm%2FJSN_C00001%2Flarge%2F49%2F49727%2F4949727005218.jpg&hash=048d2871eff7589794ff95a8ea4e12282496a7a0)
I can confirm that the Kato bogies do have electrical connections to both sides. However getting them from a UK supplier may be a problem.
Brian Meldon
Currently available on eBay from plazajapan, a highly recommended seller.
Garry
I found an interesting and cheap solution to adding pick ups on steel axles (with one insulated wheel) was to remove the insulated wheel and slip a small spring onto the axle ('N' gauge coupling spring?) then carefully replace the insulated wheel. This spring is pre-soldered to a flexible wire pushed up through a hole in the wagon body.
Each axle would of course need to be reversed to provide a mirror image of its neighbour to provide + & - polarity pick ups.
Much simpler than adding wipers but in effect only adding one dual pick up per bogie.
The Kato bogie is obviously a better solution to your needs, but this idea would work better for single axles on a four wheel wagon where lighting or other application is required.
Quote from: garrywhiting on March 15, 2014, 10:25
Quote from: B.Meldon on March 15, 2014, 09:08
I can confirm that the Kato bogies do have electrical connections to both sides. However getting them from a UK supplier may be a problem.
Brian Meldon
Currently available on eBay from plazajapan, a highly recommended seller.
Garry
That's where I bought mine from
I find the problem with pickups to be quite surprising. I am not saying the problem does not exist for posters but I have not encountered it. My locos , with pickups only on the driving wheels, have variously wheelbases of 16mm, 12mm and 10.5mm (the last being four wheeled anyway) and all run perfectly over Peco points with either live or dead frogs, usually I will admit, live frogs. However, my test track has Peco N gauge set track and the points are dead frog, which cause no problems. My locos are NOT compensated and my construction and track laying are not particularly expert. Track is NOT cleaned, abrasive cleaners (rubbers and the like) to my mind cause more problems than they solve. However, track, loco wheels and pickups (including the axle bearings of the locos, which form part of the pickup chain) arelconditioned with a conductivity enhancer (I won't say which one).
Rod
The dead (plastic) section on a Tillig duel gauge point is about 15mm long!
This is considerable longer than on Peco dead frog points.
Not only that but the Egger-chassis are not exactly the best and the chances of the one remaining wheel not on the plastic section lifting off the track is I would say quite high.
Personally I have always had problems with dead frogs. Although four wheel locos will not stop every time on a dead frog they do stop on dead frogs sometimes and as a result I always avoid dead frogs, I get no problems at all with live frogs.
But perhaps this is because the quality of the chassis I use is not a good as Rods?
Brian Meldon
Ha Ha Brian! The LAST thing I would say about my chassis is that they are of good quality! They are quite sloppy, usually quite worn. On reflection, this MIGHT have something to do with it, unintentionally producing a form of compensation (which I dislike).
Rod