Hi All
Does anyone know if anyone makes O scale 2 rail trucks with pick ups?
I need some for my scratch build box cars. I've Googled around, but no luck.
Thanks
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Fairly easy conversion if you buy some atlas caboose trucks with the wipers and install them on another freight truck. I've done that with their RB trucks for an EOT.
MaxSouth,
You can purchase some 0.008" phosphor bronze sheet stock from McMaster Carr and make you own pickup wipers. This material cuts easily with a pair of sharp scissors and can be drilled and shaped to make any kind of pickup wiper you may need. If the wiper is to be isolated from the truck frame, solder it to a piece of one sided PC board and attach the wiper to the truck with small screw (0-80) through the PC board material. Remove the copper from the PC board where the screw is attached. I have made may pickup wipers like this for 3 rail to 2 rail conversions of diesel trucks.
Joe Foehrkolb
"Does anyone know if anyone makes O scale 2 rail trucks with pick ups?
I need some for my scratch build box cars."
Could you just use metal trucks with one picking up from the right rail and the other from the left rail like old tenders had? .....DaveB
I can make things easy for you - boxcars do not need electrical pickup. They do need insulated trucks, and that is easy - just buy and install NWSL wheelsets.
Unless you have an electrically actuated giraffe that pops out the top, of course . . .
Originally Posted by bob2:
I can make things easy for you - boxcars do not need electrical pickup. They do need insulated trucks, and that is easy - just buy and install NWSL wheelsets.
Unless you have an electrically actuated giraffe that pops out the top, of course . . .
Hey Bob , of course with your prehistoric junk you deal with you would make a comment like that , they make decoders for rail car sounds these days , crawl back under that rock .
Originally Posted by DaveJfr0:
I'm with Joe on using wipers and PC board. I used 2-56 screws, but 0-80 works too. I'd also suggest silver solder or tix to make stronger connections to the PCB.
I may need to make my own at some point, but I picked up phosphor-bronze wipers already pre-cut and drilled from Rod Miller.
http://www.rodmiller.com/parts.html
Here is a blogpost that has one picture of how I installed the wipers. It was my first job…if I were to redo it, I'd bend that wiper 90 degrees and have it touch the back of the wheel instead…as thats how I do all of mine today.
http://davejfr0.blogspot.com/2...lation-finished.html
Thank you for posting this. I lost all my sites when my computer crashed again. I would have thought the browser would have remembered them?
I got the wipers from Rod and they worked great. I have also used the ones from K-line trucks.
John S posted that just using wire from the same material works too.
Thanks for all the replies, guys.
The reason for having pick ups on the boxcars is so that the decoders inside can operate the couplers, using muscle wire.
Here is an O scale prototype I've built on a boxcar sized MDF board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q29cdtFGdUo
With computer control, it's necessary that the couplers can be operated by the DCC system.
I've built HO pick ups using phosphor bronze wire and also sheet in the past, but the type that are built into the trucks have worked more reliably for me.
I'll follow up all of your suggestions.
Cheers
Originally Posted by Mike DeBerg:
Fairly easy conversion if you buy some atlas caboose trucks with the wipers and install them on another freight truck. I've done that with their RB trucks for an EOT.
Thanks, Mike.
http://shop.atlasrr.com/p-2739...-caboose-trucks.aspx
They don't pick up from the bearings, but at least they run on the backs of the wheels. I've found that running wipers on the treads tends to create grooves, which pick up crud.
At US$25.00 a pair, they look like good value as well. The downside is the gazillion dollars postage from the USPS. 
A final question, I can't see from the photo - do they have wipers on both sides?
Cheers
Yeah, I don't like wipers on the treads either.
Wipers on both sides. I have converted several cars for EOT, Soundcar decoders, etc... using this method. Fairly easy conversion.
Originally Posted by MaxSouthOz:
Originally Posted by Mike DeBerg:
Fairly easy conversion if you buy some atlas caboose trucks with the wipers and install them on another freight truck. I've done that with their RB trucks for an EOT.
Thanks, Mike.
http://shop.atlasrr.com/p-2739...-caboose-trucks.aspx
They don't pick up from the bearings, but at least they run on the backs of the wheels. I've found that running wipers on the treads tends to create grooves, which pick up crud.
At US$25.00 a pair, they look like good value as well. The downside is the gazillion dollars postage from the USPS.
A final question, I can't see from the photo - do they have wipers on both sides?
Cheers
Lovely. 
Thanks, Mike.
