Every Lionel operating car I buy has the wire to the pick-up shoe fail withing a day or 2 of running. What do you guys do to stop the wire from breaking?
Original Post
Where exactly are they breaking? Always the same place? Any signs of overheating?
Are the shoes hanging up on switches or control rails or something? I have experience only with postwar operating cars, so I may not be of any help.
Some time back Jim Barrett, I think it was, wrote an article about filing-back pick-up
shoes (increasing the taper) to reduce the impacts on them.
In a somewhat related matter, whenever I need to service the wiring to a pickup roller I place a rubber grommet (available at any decent hardware store) through the hole where the wire goes through the sheet-metal floor of the car as a protective measure.
It's easiest if at least one end of the wire is free, but it can be done (by cutting an extremely narrow slit in the grommet) even when the wire is attached at both ends.
