BRIAN T

Yes,but there were still plunger problems with the 1600pt as you sent out (to me) uprated ones which made good contact with the wheels,this made a huge improvement to running qualities.

I fitted Alan Gibson springs to mine ,but the plungers were still binding in the tube.

Ok, I’ve spliced the wire pickups into the circuit board plug,screwed in the keeper plate ,painted the copper strip and wires satin black. placed it on the track without the body,broken plastic springs, etc….and hey presto ,it runs really well and with sound on , picking up on four outer wheels and the left in situ plungers, crawling over points and negotiating curves. very pleased,now fitted the body crew ,re glued springs,just need to freshen the weathering a bit. I feel satisfied that I’ve had a go to get acceptable running….very fiddly,but now well worth it.

Yes and mind they are very lightly glued into the keeper plate,I’ve superglued them back on.

Yes ,if it doesn’t look right ,try try again.

Back again in a desperate attempt to get some satisfying running,great for you owners who have good ones,but after one replacement chassis and a second set of pickups (thanks to Rapido)….and changing the springs to Alan Gibson ones which were a bit stronger ,they still stick so I have started to sort out traditional wire pickups, with the the supplied keeper plate I can only fit pickups to the 4 outer drivers plus keeping the plungers in place. I have used very fine lacquered wire from copper strip to the pickups on the circuit board (still not spliced in). the wire will be shaped and secured to the chassis and camouflaged to look like piping..and painted. If anyone is interested I will post whether this succeeded or not. thanks.

They are exactly the same …and fail just like the original,I’m sorry to say, I am now fitting wire pickups ….very carefully.

Be clear Rob , you are referring to L&B s sales not Rapido , and I did not buy mine from L&B ,I’m glad our shop has had no issues , I bought direct from Rapido.Never the less the issue is there , I will duck out now , Rapido have contacted me and are sorting things out .

Sorry if you have already looked at the plunger setup,when I examined mine,the plunger and spring is in a tiny cylinder/tube type unit that is an interference fit in the chassis and quite different to the 1660 pannier set up. to get the spring out would be bad enough yet alone finding a replacement . But I do like the idea of a different keeper and wiper set up ,ignore the plunger and run wires to the circuit board. just to get it running satisfactorily.

Yes totally agree,looked at maybe fitting wiper pickups ,but a big job to get the pick up wires to the circuit board and couldn’t see how to dismantle the chassis from the body without ending up with a kit of parts. you need to remove the wheels and brake rigging to get at the plungers and be careful you don’t upset or damage the valve gear as they extremely delicate.As you say the existing set up will never be satisfactory.

Yes , I tried with the 1600 pannier before Rapido sent me out the more heavy duty ones,with Alan Gibson plungers but they were too big,the plunger in the 1500 tank is a push fit tiny sprung unit which would be very difficult to mess about with.

Again unfortunately I am back with the same gripe,my replaced chassis,has the same problem as before ,the pathetic plunger pickups are sticking in the chassis ,the spring is too weak to push the plunger out to the back of the wheel , I even took one out as they are a press fit to clean and check,but they are so intermittent, at the moment only picking up on 3 wheels , so it’s back in the display cabinet for this one, I keep trying as this was a long awaited model…..but it must run ….so I’ve given up. It needs a bottom end upgrade, and if future models have this feature it will be a no no for me. By the way I have contacted Rapido about upgraded pickups as the 1600 PT had, but until now no reply.

A bit late I know since my last post regarding my 15xx ,unfortunately a heart attack got in the way,but a week ago I had my replacement model back from warranty.ok it ran backwards in DCC again , rectified in CV29,but with new chassis and new sound decoder,…and,…now runs very well. I applaud Rapido for there first class customer service regarding this model and the previous 1600 PT.having to face all these shortcomings. Having been a big Canadian modeller up until 2 years ago,Rapido.com were the benchmark for Canadian/USA locomotives in HO,they led all the other manufacturers in innovation and quality.Unfortunately this has not happened ….yet in the UK market,so so close.So let’s hope they get the accolade in the future they deserve. I hope so.

Thanks for letting me know.

Thanks for your reply and comment, will you be replying to my warranty email or send in anyway thanks again regards Brian

Hi Again i would like to thank you for your post and open ness regarding issues with this model, however..........I for one had been looking forward to this one for some time and one of the highest on my list to add to my collection. I pre-ordered a sound fitted 1504 from Rapido for myself and another from my local retailer for a friend of mine. I obtained both on the same day and when tested on the layout in DCC they both ran in Reverse , your colleague was made aware of this in a previous post and was resolved changing CV29 on both models . I thought I was quite lucky with mine , all good cosmetically and running compared to some of the issues some purchasers were experiencing. Now I am a modeller who weathers his models and adds coal lamps etc ,but thoroughly RAN IN this model over the last week before any of my "treatment", so that I was satisfied with its performance , which I was , and have carried out weathering etc. Unfortunately today i thought i would give it a good run around the layout , It struggled for a moment then went dead, no motion and no sound. I have checked the sound decoder on a ESU tester and its quite dead .I fitted a next18 blanking plate and ran it on DC and it ran but very erratically. I fitted the sound decoder from my Manor loco and it ran with sound but very erratically again, I have checked underneath the chassis and to my dismay found the same plunger pickup issues as my previous 16XX pannier had, only the centre drivers are in contact all the time , the rears have a gap on extreme sideplay and the front Drivers have one in contact and one jammed in the guide inside the chassis . 2 Major issues . And it would seem that to get at the the pickups for replacement or whatever is a different set up to the 16XX, which was more straightforward. Very disappointed when it was so promising and will not or cannot run on my layout. If these problems had manifested themselves at the beginning i would have sent it straight back, and now this has occurred 2 weeks on ...where do i stand after my work on it ? Rapido can have it back anyway as I have just about had enough of bad quality models and components from other Manufactures as well and really knocking my confidence in buying new. Sorry for the rant but Ive wasted enough time investigating problems, rather than enjoying the hobby of running trains. Have submitted a warranty claim to Rapido tonight.

Yes,straight out of the box with both on default settings,address 3. I had to set Cv 29 to 35 to reverse polarity on both.

Don’t know if this has been mentioned,apologies if it has been done to death…received my sound fitted 15xx from Rapido and bought a 1506 from my local retailer with a next18 now duly fitted,they both run in reverse when driven forward with my prodigy advance and forward in reverse mode,will have to change CV29 to correct,same happened with 2 Heljan 25s.No big deal I suppose but I like them running in the right direction, Maybe Rapido thought we ran like some NorthAmerican locos…cab forward. 🤭🤭

Yes , changed the pickups on mine last week,great improvement,pickups and springs longer and more heavy duty,fiddly but totally doable. Should not have f had to do this,…but, great customer service, thanks.

Thanks rapidoandy for your gracious reply,I would really like to at least replace the pickups,if you could supply them . please let me know how to contact you with my address etc ,by PM maybe,thanks again for your reply regards Brian.

As I previously posted , the problem is definitely the plunger pickups ,in my case the centre drivers, the pickups are not long enough to keep contact with the backs of the wheels on curves where the side play is at its maximum, I cannot send mine back as I carried out the mod to remove the components on the circuit boards which resulted in the model not running at all and I have since hard wired with a You choos sound chip with stay alive .

I see the cab inside panel has snapped off,as mine did,you can see the broken stubs in the cab….more glue!.As they say how far do you go after paying £160+. I was told by my retailer that the manufacturer would not have them back as it ran well out of the box.

Third try this morning, It will not run with the brake shoes on, which is a big No No for me. Back to the shop it went. By the way anyone fitting the decoder and the bonnet is stiff to remove after taking out the screw,it may well be the fine wires to the lights jammed between the plastic body and the metal block as it was with mine.