Add Tender Pickup

I asked a similar question last week and got some great answers. " adding a roller pickup to an engine " was the name of the thread, it should pop up in a search. 

Mark

I'd cut out a piece of fiberglass as I illustrate below with a U for the center post, drill two holes to bolt it on, then build up the roller with shims to the proper height.  I use the MTH BD-0000042 roller frequently as it's small enough to tuck into the space available.

Here's one I just did, it was problematic as it started with the big bolt and spring holding the truck on.

Here's another one, this one I stacked up the fiberglass I use to properly space the roller.

 Just recently added ERR boards to a Weaver 0-6-0. Made by Samhongsa. Should be the same as your Williams. I added a pickup roller from an Atlas caboose truck. Just drilled and tapped the truck for 2 56 screws. Added some oversize nuts under the plastic mount for the roller and came up with the tight height. I also added a phosphor bronze wiper I made up to the tender axles. This engine had 2 pickup rollers close together and 4 traction tires and 2 blind drivers. It wouldn't run well even on my roller base. Added these to the tender and it's pretty much stall proof. I probably have an extra roller and the mounting hardware. Shoot me an email if your interested. Just be careful drilling out the truck mounts. The truck sides are held on by 2 pins to the steel mount. The pins are just sort of peened over. I found          out and didn't handle them that roughly. A little JB Weld and they are better than new.

GRJ, how is your power then transferred to the engine?  Do you run a wire from tender to loco, solder to a pickup roller on the engine?  Or try to go inside? 

In all of these examples I presented, I already have a power and ground lead to the locomotive, so I just use those. 

For existing installations, I pop the top of the locomotive and wire it into the internal wiring.  For Lionel IR tethers, I use a one-wire tether that looks like a brake line to carry the power to the locomotive.  For MTH or upgrades with a tether, I normally already have track power going between the locomotive and tender.

One addition, I add a 1.5-2.0 amp trip PTC to the power lead to protect against a derailment of the tender taking out the power line in the tether.  The PTC doesn't affect normal operation, but if a short from the tender roller to the outside rail occurs, it will protect the wire, it's a PITA to replace the tether for an incident like this.

Thank you for the help.  The pictures make it so clear and I know it takes time to get them.  GRJ, I know from somewhere in the forum you usually use a Digi-Key  60R160XMR which is described as a "Resettable 60v 1.6 amp radial" PTC.  Not that it matters operationally, but to what does the "radial" refer?  Shape or construction of the PTC?

Dave, thanks for the offer, but I ordered four of the MTH ones.  The way things go for me, it will probably take that many to get one installed, and the odds of destroying the truck are very high which will lead to me ruining the tender trying to install new ones if I found some somewhere and that would mean I would throw the tender down on the bench hitting the engine and ruining some part of it upsetting me enough to take a break and mowing the grass forgetting that I left everything on the layout turned on which would lead to a short somewhere and a lot of smoke that would not set off the smoke detector because I didn't change the battery when daylight savings time started resulting in an eventual fire that burns down the layout and the rec room it's in and eventually the whole house which will lead me to finding out I forgot to renew my insurance and I will wind up living under a bridge because an engine would cut out on a switch I didn't use relays on.  Wife says I am a pessimist, but I don't get it?

Radial means the leads come out one side, axial means the leads come out opposite from each other.

This is a radial component package.

And here's the axial package.

Three and one-half years later and I finished adding roller pickups to all my tenders. Figuring out how to install them in the different situations was interesting, frustrating and enjoyable. Now I am sitting with several tenders that have a new red wire in them not yet connected to anything. So, just to be sure, I tie in the new power wire to the one running through the tether from the engine to the command components, or the reverse board if conventional. Then, between the tie in point and wire’s exit from the tender, I insert the PTC in the line?  Correct?

My K-Line 0-2-0 that already has two roller pickups under the tender never misses a beat!. As discussed many times before, it is chintzy that all manufacturers don’t do the same thing.

Correct, the PTC is in series with the tether connection to the tender roller connection.  This prevents the tether from going up in smoke if you derail and track current goes through the tether.

Thank you. 

Like this:

I do them like this.  It isolates everything between the engine and tender.  Thinking about yours, that is OK, the primary fear is the roller on the locomotive or tender will land on an outside rail and short between the units.  With small gauge wire, you are likely to fry it.

Thank you.  I will do it your way!