Shoulder screw from "65' Shorty" passenger cars?

[Maletrain]

The old "65' Shorty" passenger cars that Bachmannn produced in lighted version as the "Plus" line used a slotted-head brass screw with a shoulder to mount the trucks and serve as the electical connection through the car floor to the light inside.  Previous owners have messed-up some of those screws and nuts by applying some sort of hard glue, apparently to keep them from vibrating loose.  (Maybe in a vain attempt to combat flicker of the lights?)  SO, I am trying to find some replacements.

The problem is that the screw thead seems HIGHLY non-standard.  The best I could figure, it looks like an English 0-60 (yes "sixty" not "eighty) or a metric 1.5 x 0.40 or 0.45 (computes to 0.42 thread pitch).  And, then there is the shoulder.

Has anybody found a source for these?  (Not on the parts website.)

[gatrhumpy]

I might have some left over for you. I have been converting my Polar Express passenger cars to more free-wheeling cars using Kato 800063 Silver trucks and couplers. As for electrical pickup,  I drill holes on either side of the truck bolster for the electrical pins from the truck pickups, widen and lengthen them, and then hard-wire the lights to the truck pickups. The result is a very free-wheeling passenger car that does not need a capacitor for flickering lights.

[Maletrain]

gatrhumpy, thank you for the offer.  But, I was about to post an alternative that I worked-out. 

I can fabricate the equivalent of these shoulder screws, but in a standard thread, by the following method:  I use standard 0-80 machine screws and washers with 2mm thin wall brass tubing.  The tube is cut to whatever length I want the shoulder to be and put over the screw with a washer between the tube and screw head.  A light soldering makes the whole thing solid, it that is needed.  The advantage is that I can get taps for the standard 0-80 thread, as well as nuts.  So, I can put a brass partial floor inside the car and tap it for the screw, making the electrical connection.  The brass paal floor can go to a brass partial wall around, say, the water closet or some other compartment, and that takes the electricity up to the roof area where the LED strips are located.

I am curious about your method.  It is not clear to me if you are using wipers or some other way to connect the wires to the axels.  It seems to me that you need to get rid of the wipers to reduce friction. 

On a side note, I found that the axle lengths in some of my old Shorties were WAY out of spec.  Investigating some that did not roll freely revealed some grossly over-long axels.  One was 0.584" compared to the usual 0.563"  Some were undersized as well, as little as 0.543" in one case.  These trucks typically roll pretty easily with the standard wheels so long as the axles are the correct length, so the wipers make a noticeable difference.  But, I am in the process of replacing all of them with semi-fine scale metal wheels from Fox Valley and BLMA, so standard axles will not be a problem in my future.  But I am still interested in how you are getting electricty from your axles to the wires that you are running through the floors.

[brokemoto]

The screws do vibrate loose, once you undo them.  I use a drop of Micro Kristall Kleer to keep them from vibrating loose.  That stuff is water soluble or will even peel off.

[gatrhumpy]

If you look at the Kato 800063 passenger trucks, you'll see two standard sticky-uppy electrical tabs that would typically go into the floor of the passenger car and wipe again a piece of copper or brass for electrical contact. In my system, instead of wiping against a piece of brass or copper, the electrical wires to the lights or DCC decoder are wired directly to each tab. So each positive wire from a light will be wired to two contacts on left side of passenger car (front and back) and each negative wire will be wired to two contacts on right side of passenger car (front and back). Makes for bulletproof electrical conductivity.

[Maletrain]

OK, so you are using axle bearing pickups instead of axle wipers.  That is what I was not understanding.  Thanks.

[James in FL]

What strip led's are you guys using, and how many, in these shorty cars.
I like the idea of using the Kato passenger trucks, I'm not a rivet counter so the side frames is a non-issue. Function over form in this case.
I too will build a polar express.
I have four of the five cars and the Berk I will use, will pick up the observation when I find one for the right price at a train show or eBay.

[gatrhumpy]

OK, so you are using axle bearing pickups instead of axle wipers.  That is what I was not understanding.  Thanks.

Yes, the axle bearing pickups are integrated into the Kato passenger trucks. I drilled a hole on either side of each truck bolster and made enough room for it to pivot and turn.