Add-On Pickup Roller For an MTH Tender

Rod,

I've had a few occasions where I considered doing this as well, but never went for it.  Hopefully someone contributes some good suggestions.  A Lionel or MTH part numbers would be even more help.

I'd have no problem drilling a hole to mount the pickup, and you'd have to insulate it as well.

Jim

Had the same problem with a Blue Comet I upgraded.   Tried adding a pickup on the tender first but there wasn't much room to make it work.   I had a bunch of TAS tethers in the drawer   What I did was add a one pin tether from the back of the tender to a baggage car and just tied it into its pickups.   Works great

If your tender truck looks like this, these part numbers will work.

About half way down this page, photos show addition of a pickup roller with part numbers.

http://www.slsprr.net/features...0Pacific%20Steam.htm

Seriously, when is MTH going to wise up that two rollers on the loco aren't enough.  Economizing like that in a $1000 locomotive.  Dumb, just plain dumb.  

I just did my third tender pickup roller last week and they all work well.

For all three engines I used the pickup roller assembly that was on the old K-Line cabooses, making sure that I used ones that had a wire to bypass the spring (running Hot through the springs makes them loose their "springiness").

The engines that I modified were the the Premier G5s (PS2), RK Imperial K-4 (PS2) and RK Imperial Big Boy (PS3).

The K-4 was easier than the other two. Regardless, it wasn't necessary to modify the tender at all.

Barry my memory is fuzzy on these K-Line cabeese... would you kindly favor us with some pics?  

Several K-Line engines that I have include 2 rollers on the engine and 1 or 2 on the tender; all wired together through the tether cord to form a continuous hot. No power loss troubles with them at all.

I really wish MTH would do that as well.

Can't be done with Lionels of course with the IR tether and no power connections; at least not without running a separate power jumper wire. But it seems I have no issues with Lionels. The roller spacing in each case seems to be OK.

Any engine that has only two rollers that are spaced from 7" to 11.5" apart, is trouble on my layout. And I have several MTH steam with this exact problem. Diesels don't seem too bad. They either have four power rollers, or they are spaced far enough apart to bridge the dead zone.

I'll have to see if I can use a roller canibalized from a 2-8-0 hulk that I raided for PS-2 components! That may work.

Rod

Barry, thanks for your idea about cabeese rollers as well. That may be a source of help. Also I usually disconnect the lighting in baggage cars since it seems unlikely that you would normally see lights on inside them. They could also yield up a power roller or two.

Rod

I notice many of the Lionel Legacy locomotives have three or four pickups nowadays, doubtless to improve the chances of making it across switches.

John;

Are you referring to steam or diesel?

Rod

Both.  I see three rollers on the Legacy steamers, and four on the diesels.  Obviously, the steamers also have rollers on the tender for the sound since they have wireless tethers.

That's what I was thinking also.

You rarely if ever see rollers on MTH tenders unfortunately.

Susan; thanks very much for your infomative post as well.

Rod

So I used a surplus roller from an RTR 2-8-0, and it works great.

Very simple to do as well.

I used the existing hole in the truck frame.

Had to use some shrink tubing to insulate the machine screw, and a plastic insulator washer.

I also filed a semi-circular relief in each arm of the roller bracket so it would not short out on the wheel axle.

Wiring was easy. Just plugged it into the existing spare hot connector space in the 7 pin plug on the PS-2 board. No sweat.

Best of all; no more dead spots.

Here are some pictures:

It's a great mod for the MTH stuff, and as you say Rod, there is already a spot for the roller on many of the tender trucks.

Interesting and educational post. Not sure where to plug it in on the board, but once you do this, can the engine and tender come apart? Can you put a connector where the wire comes out of the engine?

Don;

None of that is necessary.

Most MTH steam has the PS-2 boards in the tender.

The 7 pin plug has two separate 18 VAC hot connections.

The one for the tender is usually open, so its easy to add the wire from the new power roller.

There is no change to the tether cord or engine wiring whatsoever.

Does that make sense?

I guess I could post a picture if it is still not clear.

Rod

This picture shows where the new roller hot wire connects.

From left to right, pins 1 & 2 are hot; pin 1 from the engine tether cord.

Pins 3 & 4 are ground; one from the engine tether cord, one to the tender frame.

Pins 5, 6 & 7 go to the tach reader through the tether cord. 

As mentioned, pin 2 usually has no connection, so its a natural for the new power roller.

BTW, Digikey stocks crimp connector PN S9475CT-ND which fits PS-2 connector housings quite well. (Notice I did not say "perfectly"!)

Sorry for the poor picture quality.

I am using a cheap camera that has lousy closeup capabilites. Oug good camera died recently.

Rod

Hi Rod! Thanks for sharing your technique to add a pickup roller to the tender. I have a suggestion to make attaching the roller easier. Use a nylon screw instead of metal one.

Bobby;

That's cool, but a nylon screw won't conduct electricity!

The power wire is connected on top of the truck.

Rod

Considering MTH engines steam or diesel elec or whatever are really picky as far as getting a really clear signal it is really important that the centre rail pickup rollers always get a good clean signal.

the diesels most have 4 rollers on the newer engines.

but really ticked off with mth that they do not have 4 rollers on every steamer there is always somewhere that i find they miss a signal or rail contact with various turnout sets ups and especially atlas switches;

have to have the steamers flying out of the yards to bridge the gaps so they do not stall out.

when i run them with other engines in a consist all engines must be getting a good clean signal that is difficult with the steamers with as little as 2 roller pickups with very bad spacing.

Come on MTH we should not have to spend $1000 + for a steamer and have to spend hours trying to figure out how to make it run reliably.

Get it together!