Hornby 9F Pick up failure

[Dave45678]

I bought a brand new Hornby railroad 9F, R3942.  Ran really well as a DC engine.  I have just fitted a Hornby DCC chip (fits in tender but had to open both the tender and the engine top during fitting.)  The engine can now be programmed and runs as a DCC engine but stops very frequently especially on points.  The 9V battery test showed the following: 3 axles (front 2 engine axels and front tender axle) are dead - no pick up at all.  2 axles have poor intermittent pick up (rear two driving axles).  2 axles are working well (rear 2 tender axles).  All the wheels and pick ups and track are clean and the pick ups appear to be in the right place touching the back of the wheels.  Can anyone suggest what has happened or how to fix please.

[DCB]

Quite normal really.  the long flexible pickups have a tendency to not make contact. I think they can get round a 1st radius curve which is ridiculous for a 2-10-0  The early one managed 13" radius.    They usually improve with running but are poor starters.   Make sure the front of the contact and back of the wheel are clean.    I use DC and a Relco HF rail cleaner but there isn't enough weight on the wheels for good pick up or adequate haulage.  I  binned the tender pick ups on one of ours and changed the tender chassis for a Hornby Class 47 trailing bogie chassis which reduced drag improved traction by about 2 coaches.  Probably cleaning the wheel backs, treads  and contacts will improve it a bit, but its noticeable how much faster pickups degrade and wheelbacks become discoloured from AC, DCC etc than from DC.

 

[rogerzilla]

Another common pickup problem with modern Hornby locos is the silly brass plunger system that connects the DCC block (whether DCC fitted or not) to the pickup bus on each side.  If one of the plungers gets sticky, the loco first stutters (usually on curves), then soon refuses to move at all.  I've just fixed my J50 by working the plungers with a drop of Electrolube.    Some people just solder wires in place to fix the problem for good, but I'm rubbish at soldering.