Adding rollers to MTH Tender

Ray,

You may find it easier to replace one or both of the engine's single pickup rollers with dual pickup rollers. I've done this with several MTH RK engines with great success.

Barry,

Thanks for the info. I do have some dual rollers from another engine, an MTH SW Swicher.

However, because of the design of the under carriage of the 4-6-4, the rollers will not work. There is a "hump" in the bracket that holds the axles to the frame, both on the front driver and the rear driver. Because of this "hump", the duel rollers will not fit, even though they are shorties. If I cut the bracket, then the spring would not hold the rollers down on the center rail.

Thanks for the suggestion, and if you can think of any other way of fixing this issue, I would appreciate it.

RAY 

Ray,

Dremel off the "wings" on the dual pickup assemblies and see if you can swap them for the single pickups by installing the dual pickups rotated 180 degrees.

I used the rollers from MTH roller bearing trucks taken off a caboose. They were the wrong style for the wood caboose they were used on. I think MTH will sell you just the roller assembly.

Pete

If this is a non-derailing switch, there's a good chance your loco is losing ground, rather than hot, power.  If there are wipers on loco rear truck or tender trucks, the wiper might not be making a good connection to the tender frame.  I solved thgis problem by running a wire from the wiper base to the frame.