#41 Army switcher - excessive pickup roller sparking

New rollers would help but a whole new collector assembly would probably be better.

Well, first off, those models do spark at the rollers a bit, nature of the beast.  You can smooth the rollers with something like a Cratex wheel which will remove the pits and marks.  Don't discount the roller axle to roller connection, I use something like Deoxit-D5 on those to improve continuity.

I have a few Pulmore motored locomotives and motorized units, and the sparking is part of the picture for virtually all of them.  I don't think there's any way you'll totally eliminate it.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Well, first off, those models do spark at the rollers a bit, nature of the beast.  You can smooth the rollers with something like a Cratex wheel which will remove the pits and marks.  Don't discount the roller axle to roller connection, I use something like Deoxit-D5 on those to improve continuity.

I have a few Pulmore motored locomotives and motorized units, and the sparking is part of the picture for virtually all of them.  I don't think there's any way you'll totally eliminate it.

Thanks John, I'll be cleaning the rollers and their pins thoroughly tonight... and Kudos' on the layout... can't wait to see a full year in operation...

Thanks, I'm looking forward to moving to scenery soon.

I don't mind the sparking, however, both the top of the E-unit and the top of the brush plate are getting excessively hot and I don't want to chance distorting the plastic body.

In that case, you need to do some maintenance on the motor, it's drawing excessive current.  Excessive current in converted to heat.  Cleaning the brushes and commutator are top of the list, and then lubing the armature bushings and greasing the worm gear are on the list.

Are you using a modern transformer, or a older postwar transformer?

Postwar, KW

OK that will work well. Clean the roller pins and replace the rollers (original ones if possible.)