Center rail pick up options for a 2 railer conversion

there was some talk in this thread about dual MTH pick up rollers;

pick up rollers

might be worth looking into.

Thanks...maybe a half of a dual p/u might work for my conversion...maybe.

I'm currently searching thru my train stash for viable applications. A last resort is a homemade brass strip ran front to back under the chassis for a long center shoe p/u...I'd add some tiny springs to keep contact, but I'd prefer rollers if it's possible. 

Ok, some picks will help show what I'm up against here-

This pic shows the small wheels and the block which atlas uses for this chassis.

This pic shows the gear drive cover which extends alittle farther forward to the front than the rear.

This pic shows a piece of .060 styrene that levels with the blind center drive wheel set...not alot of room to play with here.

This pic shows the forward chassis box that could yield one p/u if it were a downward force type. There's little room and inner chassis depth to swing a usual roller p/u arm.

When I'm done trying to make a center p/u, then I have to figure out a pair of body mounted knuckle couplers for her- one project at a time though...

edit- actually, I just spied my super streets bus and think that those might work here...wonder how hard it is to aquire a pair of those?!

This might work...

Great to find other guys who can't leave well enough alone. I have one of these so keep

us posted. I glanced at it when I got it with an eye to conversion, but saw the lack of

clearance and decided to put it -way- down the list.

Don't turn your nose up at a scratch built sprung slider, a la Marx and Maerklin, and some Lionel pieces (221 steamer slides/etc?). They will last just fine (hard-ish brass) and tend to be self-cleaning - including the center rail.

Freelance cow/calf/MU'd, with the calf as the pickup unit?

D500, I've had a hard time leaving things alone for eons...this won't end any time soon!

The "MU'd" thought was a brief one as I really didn't want a dedicated car to always be attached to it...and that would be too easy as well...where's the fun in that?!

The way she's set up is one side grounded to the chassis and the other to the insulated other rail pick up...this is for the folks who don't have one but are curious about it's workings. Converting will be easy enough to take the insulated pu/ wires and use those to a common outer rail pick up - leaving the center rail as the issue. The motor has a common ground lead to it to power it and that can be removed to isolate it if the new F/N/R board of choice needs that to happen...I have a spare Williams E/revrse board that's going in this and the new body will give me plenty of room to do so..."boxcab". To keep the oem body would need a far smaller F/N/R controller or to just use diodes and go forward only{given AC track power input, of course}.

My switcher came with both ends of Kadee couplers, so I need to find full sized equivelents to mate with all the other lionel/mth/k-line couplers I have....that shouldn't be too hard to scrounge up as the center rail p/u assy.

Might want to dust yours off and try along with me....if I lay hands on a pair of S/S p/u's, it's on!

What is under the belly pan or the black plastic?

That, sir, is a plastic strip. Inside is the gear drive{s}...spose you want a pic, huh?

as shown by this picture the pick up rollers do not have to be in the center.

bdt, no, but that depends on swing clearance.

Unfortunately I can't pirate those from that chassis since I have other plans for that one...you might appreciate the reason....... 

Are you planning on keeping the OEM wheels on there with the scale flanges ?  Do you know they will work with your track and [ especially ] turnouts ?  If you want to check, you could run the unit on your trackage as is with a "tethered" DC feed to the motor.

I mention this because changing the wheels on the insulated side is a snap, the other side much more difficult.  If you do change the wheels, you could make it an 0-4-0 with larger dia wheels, giving you more 'ground' clearance to mount the pickups.

SZ

I had questioned that issue, and the wheel side to side play is the same as any passenger or freight truck I grabbed to test it with...now the flanges- that's a good question, but the side play is the same as most anything 3 rail.  I could rewheel if absolutely neccessary, but I think/hope it won't be an issue.

Having partially done what you're doing many [ many ! ] years ago, that's why I am suggesting you 'test drive' it now;  if you do it later, some of the parameters may change.....

SZ

Looks like you may have more clearance between the middle and the right axle? Can you cut a section out of the pan between those two axles? maybe put a thin piece of plastic there to help keep the grease in? Looks like the pan can be flat there?

Yes...flanges...and the need to rewheel, has been an obstacle to all kinds of conversions

of many, many items, brass and otherwise,  made in 2 rail in O scale, such as McKeen cars, to three rail.  If that was a speedbump instead of a mountain, I could run all kinds

of stuff I want.

Could you refresh my memory of your build please...just how did you get and how did she run and on what track/switches. I currently have more fastrack than "O" 3 rail tubular and my switches are fastrack 0-36.

Did you rewheel?

I have a bridge rectifier here and can temp wire her to run in forward thru my switches to see how that works...of course I'd need some center p/u's 1st.

This could be another p/u idea...just grabbed this one to see what I needed to get it back on the rails again and spied the p/u assy...straight upwards p/u assy!...Hmmmm

Ok...I'm convinced. I'll start looking around for some new drivers with the correct flange...I'll add it to my list of things to do to her.

BTW- what ya got that you want to add deeper flanges to and convert?!

See my Oct 11 post to your "Did Atlas make a 3 rail..."

No, you don't need the center rail pickup to try it;  as I suggested above, run a DC 'tether' to one side of just the motor [ the other side to carbody ground ] and run it through some sample turnouts and trackage that way.

SZ

Ok, I think I've found the wheels right in my dummy MTH doodlebug...best $25 I ever spent.

The oem Atlas wheels are .750 OD without the flange and running on 2.5mm axles. The doodlebug wheels are a tad over .800 sans flange so the slight increase will aid in roller clearance without hiking her up too high.

Now, the center blind driver- I show the atlas as .730 at the flange down to .710 at the outside edge....should I keep the same reduction in OD with the new center blind wheels to keep rail side clipping at bay? Suggestions?.....

My friend has a machine shop and I'm thinking he can make up some axle bushings to fit over the oem atlas 2.5mm axles so the new MTH wheels can be pressed on...once again, thoughts?......