MTH Premier A-5 0-4-0 dies on Scaletrax 22 degree crossover SOLVED 2/27

I run all Scaletrax and one of the biggest issues with MTH is the lack of pickup rollers on the tender.  It seems really odd to me that they never did and Lionel does which makes Lionel units run better on Scaletrax than MTH.  Especially, back to back switches like my setup.

Plenty here have installed additional pickup on the tender which seems to alleviate the issue.

Sparky74 posted:

I run all Scaletrax and one of the biggest issues with MTH is the lack of pickup rollers on the tender.  It seems really odd to me that they never did and Lionel does which makes Lionel units run better on Scaletrax than MTH.  Especially, back to back switches like my setup.

Plenty here have installed additional pickup on the tender which seems to alleviate the issue.

There are two pickup rollers on the tender now.  Do you mean make the rollers on the tender, double rollers?

Ron

On my MTH 0-6-0 I had a roller installed on the locomotive, the tender already had two. There was even a mounting hole for it on the locomotive.

A lot of these have that issue, here's how I fixed a similar issue.

MTH Switcher Reliability Upgrade

Very good JRJ ......  Mine was different it is Kadee eguipped .

Thanks GRJ.  I might do that.  In the short term I added some "length" to the center rail on the 2 degree cross.  I had to be careful to get it just right so the wheels would not short.

I can make it through at 16 SMPH on the straight sections and 26 SMPH on the diagonal section.  Any slower and she stalls.  At least that's better than 40.

I might try a pair of double pickup rollers on the tender first at that is an easy fix without having to open anything up and work from the inside.

If that does not work, then I might just try the PU on the engine.

Thanks.

Ron

PS - John, the home made BCR2's work great.  Thanks!

Ron045 posted:

Has anyone installed double pickup rollers or a pickup on the engine?  It would seem like adding one to the engine would work, but then I would have another wire to worry about back to the tender.

The wire was no big deal, and it totally solved the problem as the spacing between rollers now will conquer any switch or crossover.   If you can plug the 6-pin drawbar in, the single pin wire for power should be a piece of cake.   Fooling with the rollers on something as small as that tender is likely to be marginal at solving the problem.  The fact that there's already a provision for a roller on the locomotive assures you that you'll have a trouble-free installation.

So if this is such a common sense solution, why doesn't MTH do it in the factory

Good question!  GRJ is one of the most talented engineers in this hobby; this mod is beyond what most folks could have come up with on their own.  Just knowing which roller was the best fit is a key piece of information that would have taken a lot of trial and error. 

It certainly wouldn't have cost the factory very much to incorporate these improvements in the original design.  And this loco has been reissued multiple times! 

RSJB18 posted:

So if this is such a common sense solution, why doesn't MTH do it in the factory

You could expand that to dozens of design decisions that are mode on these products. 

I'm sure it all boils down to the lowest cost solution they think they can get away with.  IOne of the factors for the decision is with the switcher steamers, they used up the wire in the drawbar that would carry track power to run the front coupler.  Thus, they don't have an extra conductor to bring track power to the locomotive without adding conductors to the drawbar design.  If you have a steamer without a front electrocoupler, you have track power already bused between the two units.

Why is there a conductor in the draw bar for a large steam engine and not a small one?  Don't they try to use as many common parts as possible?

I understand sacrifices based on financial decisions, but shouldn't you design engines so they run on your own brand of track???

Ron

The large steam doesn't have a front electrocoupler, that's why the switchers are missing the power trace.

On the way home from the Allentown show last week, I stopped in Ye Ole Train Shop in Boyertown.  It is a small but very nice shop that is jam packed with stuff and treasures.  It's one of those places where you can go up and down the aisles twice and see something new both times.

Along with a freight car, I picked up an MTH Double pickup roller BD-0000097.  I removed one of the pickup rollers on the  front of the tender in installed this double.  Perfect fit.  No modifications, wiring needed.

That was all it took to have the 0-4-0 make it through the 22 degree crossover at very slow speed.  Why wouldn't MTH just put the double on from the factory?

The original is at 10 SMPH

This one with the double pickup is at 8 SMPH

Ron, that was an easy fix...

I have a similar problem with the Lionel 2-truck shay stalling out on double-track 45-degree crossovers, but its the grounding wheels on the shay's wheelbase that just happen to be 9.25" apart - the exact spacing of the plastic part of the two-crossovers. What are the odds.

You're lucky it fit in that one.  I have those in stock, and I've tried to fit them several times, but they were never "just right" for the truck.