I've HAD it with the constant adjusting and bending and repositioning of the common and power blades of my 497 coaling station that the sliding shoes of my 3469 Automatic Dump cars or my 3559's have to contact. It's on again off again. I THOUGHT I solved the problem by lightly sanding the grey paint off the tinplate base that contacts the ground blade. I've checked and there doesn't seem t be any excessive wear of the small brass rivets inside the sliding shoes, and these cars work perfectly FINE and CONSISTENTLY on a UCS track. I even installed new trucks on one of my 3469's- no joy there either.
Is there any way to adapt the more reliable UCS Remote track to this 497 Coaling Station, and if so, what would the new wiring be? Or, should I just take the 497 off my table altogether, despite it's MINT condition otherwise, and see if I could find the newer 2315 version? Is the newer revision more reliable?
UPDATE- This just in- I was a little too hasty in condemning the "power and ground blade" arrangement. I found that the ground blade was LOOSE, making intermittent contact with the ground of the base. So, for now, "life is good", but I still wonder- how did it GET loose in the first place? Soft metal? Is it going to happen again, after the sliding shoes run over the top of it repeatedly?
So, perhaps the owner encountered the same problem the OP ran into, and drastically dealt with it!?!?!? In any case, it's not apparent that they were successful in using an RCS or UCS instead. I tried positioning a UCS on the base and could not get it to fit around the standing features formed in the base metal. 
A couple years ago we sold a modern edition of this accessory for a client. In cleaning/testing it, I do recall that it was significantly quieter in operation than the subject motor. OTOH, lifting a carload of coal is heavy work...requiring big machinery/sound...dontcha think??
