stevemmm

sent mine back too, but failed again in 25 minutes, so offered to fix it myself, all good now. just be super careful not to have derailments or short circuit situations especially on DCC. maybe one day there will be a new robust pick up arrangement available to drop in.

I have an old Dapol, how do you remove the boiler?

By placing an Amp meter good for 10 amps across the rails with a DC controller on full or across the rails (ac) on DCC it is amazing to see the amps available to do damage to rollingstock, Watts = Voltage x Amps.

The 15xx will run perfectly continuously, the problems may only happen when a derailment or other situation occurs when current flows between one axle and another axle, a occurrence more common and dramatic with DCC than DC.

It is disturbing that DCC systems like NCE can produce 7.5 amps with 14 volts on the track at any time, even with intermediate circuit breakers or suppressors this can be reduced to 2.5amps, this is still enough to anneal tiny plunger springs in the event of a derailment or running into points set incorrectly. In my 10 years experience with DCC in a club with 300 members on a OO 14m x 7m layout with 300m of track specializing in prototypical operation and shunting, it seems most models can stand the punishment DCC gives except for the 15xx.

Thanks for the info. So far I have fitted new home made springs to the plunger pick ups, these were made from wire from Lima pancake motor brush springs which is .006" thick wire (.15mm) while the original is .004" (.1mm) thick wire. These heavier springs are sadly still not able to safely handle all the electrical incidents that happen on DCC layouts it seems, but are a slight improvement.

Two of my plastic leaf springs on the keeper plate have broken off too

interested to see how this goes. Maybe could also use tiny black insulated wire to travel up vertically to the circuit board.

For DCC users especially I hopefully can see a time when a new keeper plate is made and easily available with traditional wiper type pick ups,

Can anyone tell us if the rapido 15xx replacement pick ups are identical to the first issue or have they been improved to prevent failures.

I find the telephone numbers for Rapido do not work, does anyone else have that problem?

Since Rapido have come back from Holidays I have been waiting. Seems they are busy.

There seems to be a double sided contact plate down the centre of the loco chassis where the inbound nipples of the plunger assembly contacts with, no soldering needed. It is important that both nipples are free to spring in and out with gay abandons to ensure correct operations, These nipples are only 0.9mm in diameter.

Rapido should help here, I have asked them for this info since October but no luck. In desperation over Christmas I put my brain surgeon hat on and unclipped the brake rigging and put to one side. Then removed the keeper plate and carefully dropped the wheels slightly out so no rods got bent. This allows access to the plungers which are plastic tubes 2.4mm diameter and 5.5mm long, they contain a tiny spring 1.5mm diameter which fails. The spring acts on two nipples out of each end, like the things the ladies buy at Adult shops. These plunger assemblies are a push fit and have a tiny flange which you can very carefully lever each side with a blade of a thin craft knife to gently pull out. A difficult task. There must be a better way. I have done full drawings of all the component parts, Need those head mounted magnifying glasses with good lighting and an immaculate work area ready to catch things that go flying, like Rod Stewart does with an apron that connects to the bench, but don't walk away in a hurry.

Maybe someone will 3D print a new keeper plate with wipers, two fine black wire could easily run up between the wheels on one side to the circuit board, a simple task. Otherwise just fit stronger springs to the existing plungers, a bit like brain surgery i suppose, increase the thickness of the spring wire by .001" should do the trick.

In some cases with motor brush springs the spring does not need to carry the current all by itself. With the 15xx pick up springs, the springs carry all the current. If these springs are made of .002" wire and when you consider .008" wire will melt at 5 amps things will be a problem especially on DCC layouts.

Depends on the model, in some twenty year plus models the plastic becomes unstable and some cast metal parts fall to pieces or grow in size preventing operation. With live steam 45mm models these are usually only tested on air pressure in the chinese factories and problems are found when you try to fire them on gas or meths.

A factor in this is that I believe most models do not get seriously used, giving a false indication of any issues. I help with so many estates where models have never been taken out of the box. My experience with larger scales is that some chinese manufactures threat you like an unusual person if you take loco out of the box and try to use it, it seems most purchasers don't do that.

With the increased voltage and current available on DCC layouts one wonders if the springs anneal and loose their springiness

Perhaps the springs in the wipers are not strong enough

Has any model magazine done a review on the 15xx?

My first 15xx from Hattons failed with pick up problems after 30 minutes so the loco went back to the UK for repair at Rapido. Two months later the loco with a replacement chassis arrived but also failed with pick up problems. Rapido seem very busy and are very helpful when they can with this beautiful model. However to avoid another 20,000 mile 2 month trip maybe I can tweak the pick ups myself, having been in the hobby 50+ years and have scratch built 150 locos. The pick ups seem to be lightweight and frail. Please can anyone give their experiences with this loco or this type of plunger pick ups. They seem difficult to get to, can anyone advise on disassembly to do pick up maintenance. I cannot find the exploded drawing of the loco, although it may not be much help.. My understanding with my 10 years operating DCC on a 14x7m club layout is that pick ups need to be robust and fully effective. Maybe there will be a case in the future to retrofit traditional sturdy pick ups for people to enjoy this magnificent model in frequent operation. Perhaps a replacement keeper plate? From my experience more than half of model locos built never get used to any great extent.