electrical pick-up trucks for scratch build

Lionel Parts:

610-9845-160

600-9536-057

600-9536-054

If you need simple roller type center rail pickups for lighted cars it is easy to add a wiper style pickup to cheap plastic Lionel trucks from inexpensive Lionel Scout type cars.

I use a piece of brass shim stock (or copper weather striping) and cut a piece about 1/4 in wide and 1 1/2 inch long.  I solder a flexible insulted wire to one end and drill a small hole in that end.  Then I drill a pilot hole under the truck to allow the new pick ups end to drag on the center rail.  I bend a curve in the pick up to keep tension on the track.  I drive a small self tapping screw into the truck to hold the drag pickup in the truck.

I often cover the top of the pick up with plastic electrical tape to keep it from shorting out on the trailing axle and some times loop this around the trailing axle to act as a guide.

This pick up works best in the forward direction only when the wiper style pick up is be dragged along.

I have used this method to add light pickups for several sets of Lionel 2400 series passenger cars I have made from purchased replacement bodies and roofs.  I make the frame for the wheels and light mounts from sheet metal.  More fun and cheaper than just paying for these desirable cars.

Charlie

ADCX Rob posted:

Lionel Parts:

 

610-9845-160

 

600-9536-057

 

600-9536-054

Rob or John - I have some of these trucks, minus the collector assy and insulator. I would very much like to equip a couple of them with the listed collector assy and the grounding brass strips used on other trucks I have seen. The links you gave are now dead. Do you think it's because Lionel has dropped them? Or perhaps the needed link has changed due to some website restructuring? 

I seem to have about a 10% success rate when searching the Lionel site for parts - most of the time I write it off to wanting parts they no longer stock, but I never really know if that's it, or if I am dealing with a very fussy search engine on Lionel's site.... So where exactly should I plug in the number for the collector assy on Lionel's site? I tried the "Replacement Parts" tab and their "Repairs and Service" tab, neither got any hits when I plugged 600-9536-057 into the Product name or number box....

I just made a camera car using the Atlas caboose trucks. They have the two wires installed.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

When you search on Lionel, leave out the dashes.

Thank you, John! I just saw your comment, and am thrilled that I now get results on my searches. How strange that Lionel would choose to force this search format exclusively given that almost everywhere I look, I see their part numbers with dashes, including the pictures of parts resulting from a search!

GeoPeg posted:

ADCX Rob posted:

Lionel Parts:

 

610-9845-160

 

600-9536-057

 

600-9536-054

...The links you gave are now dead...

 Fixed w/ new website urls for Lionel Support.

ADCX Rob posted:

GeoPeg posted:

ADCX Rob posted:

Lionel Parts:

610-9845-160

 600-9536-057

600-9536-054

...The links you gave are now dead...

 Fixed w/ new website urls for Lionel Support.

Thanks Rob - the whole key to my being able to find these parts on Lionel's site was knowing that the search doesn't accept dashes - who knew? Did I miss the instructions somewhere? Kind of like buying my Android tablet - no instructions, no explanation of the Android OS, no nothing that would give a new user a hint on how to use it. Makes you wonder what the thought process is/was - other than cost savings by not including any kind of manual!

Did I say thanks!?

Details of homemade truck pickups are above in my post of 12-29-2014 and the link below post 16 from where the below better picture is from.  These are easy to make, inexpensive and work very well.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...ra-027-layout?page=2

Pickup detail.  A piece of tin can was added to improve durability of shim stock.

 Charlie

"Baby wants a new pair of shoes"

  I like the way my Marx passenger cars don't have much car light flashing to speak of; they have near "constant lighting" quality. With only one shoe too. Every passenger car I have blinks constantly except the Max and they have rollers while Marx has shoes.. some cars even have dual pick ups, still not as stable.

 The shoe, even homade on a couple of cars, has a more reliable connection IME, but alas they do wear faster, have a way more drag, and some turnouts and uncoupling tracks give them issues too.

I think the drag was the main reason for going to rollers, not a connection issue. Singly, not a real issue, but it can be significant when you have many cars each dragging a tiny anchor. I figure about 1 car less ability for every 4-6 shoes.

 But even homemade, I find them far more reliable than the modern plastic cradle insert type rollers. The plastic lever springs are weak and break, the stay tabs give, and they melt too easy when there is a heavy amp draw too. I must have replaced a dozen plasics since the indroduction and have 3 or four bad now..... Ive only replaced two PW rollers ever, and they seem to perform better, likely more spring pressure at the roller because the platic cradle has to fit lite weight cars and plastic trucks as well.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Here's my project trucks, they have electrocouplers, the magnet for the hall effect sensor or reed switch.  That allows you to sense when the car is moving.  Finally, the square at the back is for the standard pickup assembly.  The truck, and to add the roller requires these three parts.

 You can also get the truck that just accepts the pickup assembly for less, I don't have the number handy.

 610-9845-160-Truck Assembly w/coil coupler

600-9536-057-Collector Assy

600-9536-054-Collector Insulator

John - I have looked on the Lionel site to find a reed switch addition to the above truck, but haven't found anything so far. Do you know if Lionel ever made such an animal? Or did they use only Hall effect switches on the magnet equipped axle? 

George

George,    If you are looking for the reed switch, only, check out ERR.  You can purchase them from ERR and they are very reasonable in cost.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275

texastrain posted:

George,    If you are looking for the reed switch, only, check out ERR.  You can purchase them from ERR and they are very reasonable in cost.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275

Jesse, I visited their site but couldn't find where they sell just the reed switch, in fact I couldn't find any mention of a reed switch. I sent them an email - in the meantime, I will check with Digikey.

George

George, send me an email, I can fix you up with the reed switch and a couple of magnets.

Lionel only used the hall effect sensor, I don't remember ever seeing a reed switch on a production Lionel truck for motion sensing.

GeoPeg posted:

texastrain posted:

George,    If you are looking for the reed switch, only, check out ERR.  You can purchase them from ERR and they are very reasonable in cost.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275

Jesse, I visited their site but couldn't find where they sell just the reed switch, in fact I couldn't find any mention of a reed switch. I sent them an email - in the meantime, I will check with Digikey.

George

Jesse - got a response from ERR, they don't sell the switch and magnet on-line, but they are listed on their printable order form - thanks for the heads up!

George

gunrunnerjohn posted:

George, send me an email, I can fix you up with the reed switch and a couple of magnets.

Lionel only used the hall effect sensor, I don't remember ever seeing a reed switch on a production Lionel truck for motion sensing.

Email sent.  Do you know if the ring magnet on your "project truck" will activate a reed switch? I am not at all clear on what the North/South pole arrangement/orientation would be on a ring magnet...

George

OK, parts received, truck assembly is complete with the plastic spring insulator, pickup roller, and a brass axle wiper for good ground. I am ready to glue stuff together - coupla questions:

Which magnets do you use from K&J Magnetics?

Is there a commonly accepted technique for mounting the reed switch? Keep in mind I will be using the 610-9845-160-Truck Assembly referenced in this thread and will be using the axle-mounted ring magnet.

With regard to mounting the small magnets (even though I'm not using those on this particular project), you made a comment in another thread Reed switch conversion for 4 chuffs... where you said, "You want the magnet within the width of a dime to the travel of the magnets and offset to one side so as not to get double chuffs." Could you explain?

BTW, I just checked the OP's thread title - I may be pretty far off topic here, do you know of a better thread to continue this conversation on?

George

You could start another thread and link to it here so John doesn't have to hunt.

Adriatic posted:

You could start another thread and link to it here so John doesn't have to hunt.

Thank you for stating what should have been obvious - moving this discussion to Adding a (reed) Chuff Switch to a tender