New 4-4-0 electrical wipers

[edpb]

Hi Mr. Bach Man,

I have a new 4-4-0 Jupiter.  It has stalling problems.  I found that the wipers on the rear axle of the front pair were bent far away from the axle, and on one of the front pair two of the three were bent away.  I straightened them and ran the loco again but it still stalls here and there on just plain track.  I will work on it.

But, here is my first question:
While I was straightening the worst of the bent wipers, the square plate that holds the wiper assembly on the truck came off.  I could put it back on and it would stay, but any pressure on a wiper would take it off again.  I'm thinking that the "snap on" feature of the plate is worn out, holes too big or whatever.  The part number for this plate is 00P05.  I would like to get a few new plates but they do not show up in a search for 00P05.  Even a new truck (00N01) does not show up in a search for that part.  So, is there a source for these plates?

Second question:
There is no electrical diagram for the new 4-4-0 locos.  It looks to me as though all the electrical pickups for the loco are in the tender.  It looks like wires from the tender are attached to a plug that plugs into the rear of the loco to power the motor and light.  Is that right?  It would be very helpful to separate the tender from the loco when I'm working on one of them so I hope it is a plug..

Thanks for your help.

[Hunt]

. . .
Second question:
There is no electrical diagram for the new 4-4-0 locos.  It looks to me as though all the electrical pickups for the loco are in the tender.  It looks like wires from the tender are attached to a plug that plugs into the rear of the loco to power the motor and light.  Is that right?  It would be very helpful to separate the tender from the loco when I'm working on one of them so I hope it is a plug..
. . .

Per exploded view diagram - there are electrical pickup wipers (part MT19 and MT20), which rub back of locomotive drivers.

-----

It is a pin  connector in wires between tender to locomotive if your tender like this

[edpb]

Thanks for your info, Hunt.  I saw the wipers on the exploded view, and I have already done some work on mine, but in the exploded view there are no wires connected to the wipers.

My tender is exactly like yours, so thanks for showing me that the wires do indeed go into a plug.  Now I can separate the tender from the loco without worrying about breaking something.

[Hunt]

An aside,

edpb
Click Here for video segment  -- just in case you want to do more.  George Bogatiuk  - SoundTraxx Sales and Support Representative

[Hunt]

. . .

Now I can separate the tender from the loco without worrying about breaking something.

Worry if you grip wires to disconnect tender from locomotive as doing so may pull  one or more wires from the connector.   

[edpb]

Hunt, thanks for the info on the tender pin connector to the loco.  I separated the tender by prying under the ends of the connector, a little at a time.  Then it was a lot easier to clean all the wheels.

The video gave me some ideas about changes to the locos.  When my locos first arrived, I was complaining about the details, and the trouble was I was fixated on the replicas at the Golden Spike site while Bachmann was trying to make some beautiful models of many different 4-4-0s.  Well, Bachmann succeeded, and I love my Jupiter and 119.  I think the sound is better than the sound that I heard in the video (which may have been distorted in the process.)  In the Bachmann locos, the bell has a pure, clean ring to it, the whistle sounds like steam, especially the way it turns off, and the chuff makes me think that there is a real one just outside my window.

Ideas from the video:  Sometime I will get some real wood into the tender behind my Jupiter.  I may try to replace the wood in the 119 with coal, although someone in my older thread said that in one of the historic 1869 photos it appears that there is wood sticking out of 119's tender.  I will look for a pilot like the ones on the replicas, and I have seen that I can get link and pin couplers for the tenders.  I do want to look into a current keeper, or keep alive capacitor, because I want to show my working diorama to my kids and stalling would not be much fun.

[Kemptown Branch]

Do you know if the link and pin couplers work and where did you find them?

[edpb]

Hi TrainMan2001,

If you google > HO scale link and pin couplers < you will find several sources.

Hobbylink part # 6002 is a pair of link and pin made by Alexander Scale.  They are also available from
Walthers, part number 120-6002.

In the pictures, it look like they work.  I have never owned any.

[hminky]

An aside,

edpb
Click Here for video segment  -- just in case you want to do more.  George Bogatiuk  - SoundTraxx Sales and Support Representative

The wood was never thrown in haphazard and was piled neatly usually crosswise.

Easier to remove and safer in a moving locomotive.

Started a sound article but due to lack of interest never finished the article:

http://www.chainsawjunction.com/1879/nt_440/sound/

The two speakers do sound better than the one stock 15mm.



Better dynamic range with a high and low speaker.

The electrical pickups are shaky, did this:

http://www.chainsawjunction.com/1879/nt_440/wipers/

Three piece link and pins are more trouble than they are worth in HO.

None of the LnP's are anywhere near HO scale.

Harold

[bbmiroku]

I don't know about the female end of the assembly, but you could make a relatively to-scale link for the LnP couplers out of small staples or even cut standard staples into sections and bend them with needle-nose pliers.
But in all honesty, an actual link from a LnP would be less than a foot in length, around 9" long.  And in HO, 1" = 7.25'.  So 3/29ths{3/4'x7.25'} of an inch (~.103" [you can use 1/10th"]) would be the length of the HO link.  Impractical.

[hminky]

The HO LnP's could probably be used for O scale.

Made O scale LnP's from EZ-Mate HO couplers:





http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/ez_link_n_pins/

Used a "U-Link":



Did it with OO/HO scale:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/cars/couplers/





Harold

[Terry Toenges]

Harold - I disagree that the wood was always neatly stacked. I'm sure sometimes it was. There are plenty of photographs out there of 1800's locos where it looks like the wood was just piled in there. I could see stopping for wood and water on a tight schedule and just pitching it in there.
I imagine you've seen Abdill's and Beebe and Clegg's books with lots of photos of tenders that look like it's just piled in. This is just a couple of photos. There are plenty more.

[edpb]

Hi hminky,

Your new electric pickups for the new 4-4-0s are elegant and I marvel at the concept and the execution.  I'm blown away.  Sometime, soon I hope, I will find out if my 90-year-old fingers are up to duplicating on my 4-4-0s what you have done on yours.  Not only the concept and the execution, but the write-up with pictures and your step-by-step guide could not be better.  Thank you for sharing that with all of us.

[hminky]

Hi hminky,

Your new electric pickups for the new 4-4-0s are elegant and I marvel at the concept and the execution.  I'm blown away.  Sometime, soon I hope, I will find out if my 90-year-old fingers are up to duplicating on my 4-4-0s what you have done on yours.  Not only the concept and the execution, but the write-up with pictures and your step-by-step guide could not be better.  Thank you for sharing that with all of us.

Thank you for visiting

Harold