Osgood
Western Thunderer
If you are having pick-up problems on the 31's it could be because the pick-ups are made of a too smaller gauge phospher bronze wire and they might not be making contact with the screw tab which the wire is connected to. Howes has a supply of the correct gauge pick-ups for these models,
The issue Brian has highlighted above is simply one of poor connection of pick-up wire to the wiring loom.
Larger dia. wire will correct this but does it do anything else to improve pick-up integrity? I imagine the greater pressure on contact between pick-up and tyre would help to keep this vital area clean, but what about increased resistance to rolling - is this anything to worry about?
I bought my 31 through a Main Dealer, so after reading the above I contacted them to enquire about pick-up issues and (out of loyalty I suppose ) to see if they could supply remedial parts. They said that of the very significant quantity of 31s they had sold, they had received not one complaint about pick-ups. And their only Heljan pick-up problem concerned a Class 37 for which a stock replacement part was issued.
Now - of course it may be that all those sold were to buyers like me who have kept them in their boxes ever since , or that their customers do not bother to contact them re. issues, or that Howes received a faulty batch of 31s.
I'm now getting close to being able to power up both DCC and non-DCC locos on a 2m test track, so in light of this thread the first thing I'll do is check all pick-ups are working correctly.
So my question is - if I check the integrity of each pick-up wire to loom connection and it proves to be good, is there any point in installing these thicker pick-ups? And is there a simple way (e.g. solder or additional wire packing) of rectifying any poor joints?