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Seems to work well.

One of several MTH offerings that has a 3rail/2rail convertible design.   There are instruction about the conversion and a couple of switches on the tender.

Rear porch discussion.

Small decapod, compared to a 3rd Rail Pennsy I1 decapod.  No problems on an O54 layout.

There was some discussion about the visible drive tower.

Shell has been lifted in this picture.

 

 

Mike CT, Looking at the front end of your Shawmut MTH decapod and 3rd rail Pennsy decapods, the front couplers look great.  Is that what they came with or something you added?

I ask because I have a railking engine with a fake front coupler and flat front beam that I would like to change.  I looked at the kadee catalog online and only saw offerings for freight cars couplers that mounted underneath.

 

By the way I would love to have A WM Russian decapod but they have always been out of my price range.

 

John Z

jhz563 posted:

Mike CT, Looking at the front end of your Shawmut MTH decapod and 3rd rail Pennsy decapods, the front couplers look great.  Is that what they came with or something you added?  Both the Russian Decapod and the Pennsy I1 are as they came.  Thirdrail has been upgrade to TMCC. 

I ask because I have a railking engine with a fake front coupler and flat front beam that I would like to change.  I looked at the kadee catalog online and only saw offerings for freight cars couplers that mounted underneath.    As pictured, out of the box.

 

By the way I would love to have A WM Russian decapod but they have always been out of my price range.

 

John Z

 

Mike CT posted:
jhz563 posted:

Mike CT, Looking at the front end of your Shawmut MTH decapod and 3rd rail Pennsy decapods, the front couplers look great.  Is that what they came with or something you added?  Both the Russian Decapod and the Pennsy I1 are as they came.  Thirdrail has been upgrade to TMCC. 

I ask because I have a railking engine with a fake front coupler and flat front beam that I would like to change.  I looked at the kadee catalog online and only saw offerings for freight cars couplers that mounted underneath.    As pictured, out of the box.

 

By the way I would love to have A WM Russian decapod but they have always been out of my price range.

 

John Z

 

Thanks Mike

Jim Harrington posted:

In turning one over, I was surprised to find that there are no center rail pick up rollers on the locomotive; only 2 on the tender, which has a short wheel base... Seems unusual.  Thoughts?

I noticed recently that my MTH Premier New York Central 0-4-0 and (USRA) 0-6-0 locomotives have two pickup rollers on the tender and none on the locomotive.  I was definitely surprised. Both of these models run well on my Atlas O-54 track and switches. See photos of 0-4-0 below.

MELGAR

MELGAR_NYC_040_LOCO_TENDERMELGAR_NYC_040_TENDERMELGAR_NYC_040_LOCO

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MELGAR posted:
Jim Harrington posted:

In turning one over, I was surprised to find that there are no center rail pick up rollers on the locomotive; only 2 on the tender.

MELGAR_NYC_040_LOCO

Looks to me that one pick up roller could be added to that engine. In my experience I have seen that MTH will design provisions for pick up rollers on some steam locomotives but will not install them at the factory. I had worked a Premier Royal Hudson for a customer in Canada. He was having issues with pick up through his Atlas Switches. All I had to do was add pickups to the engine....if I remember right?? (this was 4 years ago) 

Last edited by Bruk
"Jim Harrington posted:

In turning one over, I was surprised to find that there are no center rail pick up rollers on the locomotive; only 2 on the tender."

"Bruk posted:

Looks to me that one pick up roller could be added to that engine. In my experience I have seen that MTH will design provisions for pick up rollers on some steam locomotives but will not install them at the factory. I had worked a Premier Royal Hudson for a customer in Canada. He was having issues with pick up through his Atlas Switches. All I had to do was add pickups to the engine....if I remember right?? (this was 4 years ago)." 

I think that there may be provision to install a pickup roller on the 0-4-0 locomotive. The enlarged picture below shows an (almost square) opening just ahead of the rear driver axle into which a pickup roller and wiring could be mounted... Sorry for the thread drift...

MELGAR

 MELGAR_NYC_040_LOCO_CROP

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Last edited by MELGAR

MTH uses several variations of pickups.  Usually 2 or more on engine and none on tender.  Some have one on each, others have both on tender and none on engine.  Yes designed and produced that way.

As I stated for small switchers it is to gain a feature on the engine since PS-2 is limited by 10 wires in tether.  On others may be interference on gearbox/motor mount.  Or to gain the extra wire for 2rail/3rail feature.

No one complained how it ran, but maybe it will have issues on your switches.

If holes are there you probably could add pickups you than need to disable the feature and rewire engine and tender for the typical pin 7 AC Center rail. G

BRUK, your customer may have been using the older style Atlas switches (pictured at right). The newer style (on left) are much more pick-up roller friendly. If so, he may be able to purchase and add the missing pick-up roller rails from Atlas. The turnouts in the picture are #7.5 High speed. Both have same part number so you never know which your getting when you order on line.thumbnail [2)   

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Jim Harrington posted:
GGG posted:
Jim Harrington posted:

Unfortunately these engines have neither...

What are you talking about?  The 0-4-0 that I was posting about has both. G

The 2-10-0, which was the topic of the original post and subject of my question...

Which was back in August and over with. Someone decided to use your post in Dec about switchers.  That is what was addressed. G

Thanks Jim, Merry Christmas to you too,  I missed that you resurrected a 4 month old post to question pick up rollers. So I addressed the specific 0-4-0 post.  Have you bought the engine yet?  Regardless, my post informs why some don't have pickups on the engine, rather than your disconcerting questioning of the product engineering.  If the spacing of the pickup rollers on the engine are as short as a tender would it matter where they were? G

I'm not debating whether they should be on either the locomotive or the tender.  All my TMCC steam locomotives have four - two rollers on the loco AND two on the tender.

My MTH FT-Units have four - two on each truck.

If there is room (and there seems to be), why wouldn't MTH put them on both the loco and tender for better reliability?  (Loaded question - probably "value engineering"). 

Jim Harrington posted:

I'm not debating whether they should be on either the locomotive or the tender.  All my TMCC steam locomotives have four - two rollers on the loco AND two on the tender.

My MTH FT-Units have four - two on each truck.

If there is room (and there seems to be), why wouldn't MTH put them on both the loco and tender for better reliability?  (Loaded question - probably "value engineering"). 

TMCC has to have 4 especially when IR sensor used otherwise the tender has no power for the boards.  TMCC has boards in engine and tender.  MTH has main board in one location.  Even early TMCC with 4 wire harness had same issue.  3 of the 4 used up for serial data, coupler and reverse light.  SO they tied AC ground between units and used pickups on tender to power RS. It is not about reliability.  It is why sometimes sounds go out on TMCC engine over switches. Tender and engine do not power each other.

In general only  minimum necessary are used.  Does your FT have 2 individual pickups per truck or a single double roller type.

You seem to be implying some defect in engineering, yet plenty of models are done this way and seem to work fine with out reliability issues.  No body in the train industries does redundancy, which is really what your talking about.  Not reliability.  Some one early on posted it ran fine with no issues.  G

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