MTH 0-6-0 railking and scale pickup rollers.

I have added rollers to a variety of locomotives and tenders.  Here's one that just had rollers on the tender, and had issues with switches, so I dropped in a roller on the locomotive, huge difference.  I used all MTH stock parts to add this roller.

MTH Switcher Reliability Upgrade

I've also added rollers to tenders without the factory provisions, I use either fiberglass or Styrene board stock to make the insulated mount.

Thanks GRJ, that's the same problem, thus the request for info.  MTH should have know better.  I had to do the same thing to a 2-8-2 running over long switches.

Do you know if the same parts would work on a Railking switcher?  I would easily pay an extra $20 for what can be no more than $2 worth of parts.

I am of the opinion that train manufacturers consider the pickups on their locomotives to be good enough if they operate on their brand of track systems. This leads to the issues we consumers have with stalling on switches and activating track sections. Industry standards could fix this problem.

NHVRYGray posted:

Do you know if the same parts would work on a Railking switcher?  I would easily pay an extra $20 for what can be no more than $2 worth of parts.

I'd have to see the mounting provisions on the RK switcher to know what would work.  The parts are actually a bit more than $2, but they're not really expensive.  I think the MSRP of all the parts I used came to around $10 if I recall.

Retail price yes, but the manufacturer is not paying retail price, that was the basis for may statement.  

I wish there were industry standards, sure would make the hobbyist life easier.

True, I have no idea what the parts cost MTH.

MTH does not use rollers on early PS-2 switcher engines to gain access for an extra wire to run front coupler.  The limitation was the 10 pin harness.   G

Agreed, but you can always put and extra tether on.  Need longer distance between pickups as in GRJ's reliability upgrade for the premier line, same issues.

The extra roller turned that locomotive into a PITA on almost any switch to a very reliable runner.  Since it was a switcher, I was unwilling to give up the extra control and just added the single wire tether.

I was explaining why MTH did it, not how you may want to modify it.  There were some large steam that also had similar issues.

Same with 2R-3R issues.  For those that want 3R only, I go in and modify wiring so that an engine ground comes across the tracks too.

PS-3 allows much more flexibility with boiler and tender board.  G

That's true George, I've put extra tethers on large steam as well.  Of course, when they have the board in the tender, typically I have power and ground across the tether, so the job is easier.  I do recommend the PTC in series with the tether in any case when you do this mod.