Motors

Change of plan…

I have just tested the Class 13’s ability to manoeuvre around short radius curves and over point work (which it manages wonderfully). I think this is mostly due to the large buffers I have used (preventing buffer lock). However, the master unit (with the motor) sounds like it is straining to pull the rather weighty slave unit. It would be a shame if the engine cannot pull a long train in the future because of my decision to remove one of the motors, so I have just reinstalled the motor into the slave unit.

My layout is DCC so this will mean a further modification to the front of the slave unit chassis (to accept a second decoder). For engines with two motors I use two decoders programmed to the same address. This takes the strain off an individual decoder and also allows each motor to be fine tuned separately.

Pick-ups

The pick-ups on the Bachmann class 08 are a tad primitive. They are set up on the top surface of each wheel. When the model is brand new this is not too much of a problem. Unfortunately, as time cracks on, the pick-ups collect all the dust and dirt from the wheels until they no longer carry any volts to the motor. They can be cleaned up, but you need to take the wheels out.

As I was already deconstructing the 08s I decided to cut away all the pick-ups and install a new arrangement based on methods I have seen used on RMweb. I superglued two pieces of copper-cladding to the chassis plate and soldered together some new pick-ups from fine copper strip.

So far I am very pleased with this modification. Once I have wired the loco to pick up off all 12 wheels, it will become a very difficult loco to stall.

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