macaroni1st

Thank you everyone. I will revise things without the insulated fishplates being in the wrong place. regards, Tony.

I have two ovals on my layout and changing from one to another is facilitated by two sets of two Peco Insulfrog points back to back with isolating rail joiners between them . Each oval is powered separately from an analogue Gaugemaster series TS controller which has three separate outlets and control knobs. The polarity and direction on each oval is the same. Steam outline locos pass over from the outer to the inner oval no problem but diesels stall because of the long wheelbase and pickups on separate bogies? Is this because of the isolating joiners not being spaced etc.? Apologies for ignorance but every attempt to read up online or in a book gets too complicated for me to understand.

Two front to chassis and two rear to the copper strip via the remaining pick up. I think you have answered my question. I need to get pickups to all three wheels per side which no doubt will help carry them across insulfrog points. Back to the soldering iron! Thank you for your response.

The plunger pickups on my Airfix Autotank are shot at . I have wired phosphor bronze pickups on two wheels each side to a strip of copper clad under the chassis. I slit the centre of the copper clad lengthways with a razor saw to isolate each side. Soldered one to a tag on the motor mounting screw and the other to what's left of the plunger leading to the strange pole and spring feeding the other side of the motor. Bit Heath Robinson but it works fine on open track. Stalls or hesitates on insulated Peco points. Would like to extend the pickups to all six wheels but unsure if each side feeds the separate sides of the motor. Noted from Service Sheet there were six plungers but I am unsure if the left and right side wheels each feed the respective sides of the motor. Incidentally I have the Hornby Autotank which runs nicely and has number 1470 against the Airfix 1466 justifying both running alongside.

Surely this has been coming. The leaving of Simon Kohler. The refusal to supply models to the magazines for review. The treatment of the retailers. The emphasis put on The Club and internet trading. Quite a lot of railway modellers are in later life but they have disposable income to purchase expensive models. However they are often great traditionalists and the internet may not be for them. I hope something can be done as Hornby is a great brand and have produced some great models.