Roco33230 0-6-0. Current collection difficulty.

[Roger Pound]

My Roco 33230 loco failed and was found to have a broken motor circuit board - one of the contact 'legs' had broken away. A new board has been obtained from Roco and fitted but I am unable to get it to make contact to complete the circuit to the motor. The board is not defective and I have tried adjusting the contacts , all to no avail. Can any member help me with this problem please? Any and all advice gratefully received.

[Julian Evison]

Hello Roger,

I am afraid I can't help you specifically. General advice is if you have a continuity tester (often one of the options on a modern volt meter), try to isolate where the failure is happening, e.g. between the wheels and the pick ups, between the pick ups and the circuit board, or between the circuit board and the motor contacts. I find this this often helps to track down the cause.

Give it a couple of days, but if you don't get an answer on the forum, you might drop an email to Alan Hamer (spares@009society.com). He has a lot of expererience of mending locomotives for the Sales stand and may be able to guide you in the right direction.

Julian

[Robin Webster]

Hi Roger, are you sure its an electrical problem and not someting small stuck in the gears when one of the ' legs' broke off. Did you check the drive before installing the new circut board.? As far as i know these little locos are fairly delicate.

Robin.
PS: let us know how it goes.

[Roger Pound]

Thanks for the replies.  As far as I an ascertain the problem lies between the wheel collectors and the circuit board legs. I have fed power through the circuit board directly to the motor which functioned perfectly. There is nothing jammed in the motor/worm/gears. Thus you will see why I am at a loss as I have not been able to cure the lack of contact between the circuit board and the wheel collectors despite modest adjustments. Thanks again for your suggestions.

Roger

[Robin Webster]

Roger, i was looking at Roco's parts list to see what the wheel picks up look like and the circuit board contacts. The image i get is not very clear. If you could take a couple of photos might help us.
Did the loco run well before the circuit board malfunction?

Robin.

[Roger Pound]

Robin,
The wheel pickups are typical p/b strip with a flat extension which runs alongside the motor seating and the legs from the circuit board contact this by, one assumes, pressure when the board is held in position by the screwing down when replacing the body parts. Photographs of the actual wheel pick ups would be virtually impossible without stripping the loco further which I prefer not to do. The intricacies of Roco design and assembly are both complex and delicate and I have no wish to create myself further problems.
The loco ran well before the failure due to a broken solder joint. It had performed faultless service on an earlier layout including at an exhibition. Sorry I am unable to offer any further help, but thank you for your interest.

Roger

[Hugh Norwood]

Hi Roger, perhaps an email as Julian suggested to Alan might help?
I don't have one of these locos myself.

[Roger Pound]

Alan Hamer e-mailed yesterday - reply waited.

[Roger Pound]

Alan Hamer has been in touch with me and will now attempt to rectify the problem. Thus, gentlemen, I feel that this draws this thread to a close. Many thanks to you all for your interest and advice, which was very much appreciated.
My kind regards to you.

Roger.

[Roger Pound]

A post-script.

Locomotive repaired by Alan and returned to Neider Kleindorf where once more it is earning it's keep. Many thanks to Alan.

Roger.

[Hugh Norwood]

That's good news!