Using Romford Pickups?

[SomethingTrainLover]

Hey all, I'm just curious how romford pickups are all, well, wired up. I've ordered some along with romford wheels and axles as the Hornby ones are ever so slightly too small to be used with the LRM motor mount I'm using, there's just too much play and it's causing binding issues, and they're near impossible to get perfectly quartered.

Basically, I've read they only need to go on one side of the engine which doesn't seem right? That and I have no idea how it would all be wired up to get to the motor? This is for DC btw

[The Johnster]

Back in the day, when men were men and sheep were nervous, and everything was in black and white because the Beatles hadn't invented colour yet, it was usual for RTR and kit chassis to have insulated pickups and insulated wheels on one side only, and only one of the brush retaining springs insulated, current being 'returned' through the live motor frame, chassis block, axle frame, and wheels without pickups.

 

This looks wierd to anyone used to the motor feed being insulated on both terminals and pickups to insulated wheels on both sides of the chassis, and everything insulated from the motor frame and the chassis block; I understand this is needed for DCC, but, like you, I only know about DC.  It obviously makes sense to design chassis for both systems.  The old 'one side pickup' system worked well enough, but one had to take care that the insulation was in place where it was needed and that, for example, wheels were replaced the right way around and the insulating sleeve went on the correct brush retaining spring.  Modern modellers wot not of carbon brushes or their retaining springs, a considerable part of the culture for those of my era...

[Barclay]

The Romford, or Markits, wheels, are available either insulated or live, so it will depend what you ordered. If half of them are live, you will, as described above, only need pickups on one side. The insulated ones can be identified by the thin brown fibre insulation visible on the inside between wheel and tyre, or by testing of course.