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Post by northern on Jul 2, 2012 14:46:35 GMT -8
I am relatively new to brass locomotives. I have just acquired a VH 2-8-0 and when I went to test the engine there was some sparking immediately comming from the tender.
I checked the wheels on the tender and they are free wheeling, none appear to be out of guage.
I tried the engine with another tender and the engine ran fine and there were no sparks/shorts from the tender.
The tender does not make contact with the engine cab at all. The tender wheel frames to not make contact with the tender body.
I had thought of placing insulated washers to the tender body but as one side of the wheels are insulated on both wheels sets that did not appear to be of any use.
Where could the shorts be coming from?
Please advise.
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Post by bnsf971 on Jul 2, 2012 15:41:31 GMT -8
I am relatively new to brass locomotives. I have just acquired a VH 2-8-0 and when I went to test the engine there was some sparking immediately comming from the tender. I checked the wheels on the tender and they are free wheeling, none appear to be out of guage. I tried the engine with another tender and the engine ran fine and there were no sparks/shorts from the tender. The tender does not make contact with the engine cab at all. The tender wheel frames to not make contact with the tender body. I had thought of placing insulated washers to the tender body but as one side of the wheels are insulated on both wheels sets that did not appear to be of any use. Where could the shorts be coming from? Please advise. It's very possible one or more axles are reversed in the trucks, or one of the trucks is reversed in the tender. Your locomotive picks up electricity from one side of the locomotive drivers, and one side of the tender wheels. check to make sure all the insulated wheels are on the same side of the tender. |
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Post by northern on Jul 2, 2012 16:00:23 GMT -8
I am relatively new to brass locomotives. I have just acquired a VH 2-8-0 and when I went to test the engine there was some sparking immediately comming from the tender. I checked the wheels on the tender and they are free wheeling, none appear to be out of guage. I tried the engine with another tender and the engine ran fine and there were no sparks/shorts from the tender. The tender does not make contact with the engine cab at all. The tender wheel frames to not make contact with the tender body. I had thought of placing insulated washers to the tender body but as one side of the wheels are insulated on both wheels sets that did not appear to be of any use. Where could the shorts be coming from? Please advise. It's very possible one or more axles are reversed in the trucks, or one of the trucks is reversed in the tender. Your locomotive picks up electricity from one side of the locomotive drivers, and one side of the tender wheels. check to make sure all the insulated wheels are on the same side of the tender. I checked and all of the tender wheels that are insulated are to one side. |
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Jul 3, 2012 7:05:42 GMT -8
Does the tender short all by itself?
If it does, and all insulated wheels are on the same side, then the only possible way for a short to occur is with the wheels on the insulated side possibly rubbing on the underframe or some detail part (on the shell or on the truck frame). Put it this way: the entire tender and the trucks are energized with the non-insulated wheels. The only route for the other polarity is through the insulated wheels...and that stops at the axle with the plastic insulation. Therefore, the only possible circuit of any kind is through the wheels themselves.
The last thing to check is to make sure the wheels on one side are indeed insulated from the axle, but that would be a rare failure.
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Post by calzephyr on Sept 5, 2012 8:57:01 GMT -8
Does the tender short all by itself? If it does, and all insulated wheels are on the same side, then the only possible way for a short to occur is with the wheels on the insulated side possibly rubbing on the underframe or some detail part (on the shell or on the truck frame). Put it this way: the entire tender and the trucks are energized with the non-insulated wheels. The only route for the other polarity is through the insulated wheels...and that stops at the axle with the plastic insulation. Therefore, the only possible circuit of any kind is through the wheels themselves. The last thing to check is to make sure the wheels on one side are indeed insulated from the axle, but that would be a rare failure. On some of the older brass models, the post to keep the trucks from turning completely around was not installed. One truck could be turned the wrong way. Larry |
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Post by selector on Sept 5, 2012 14:04:34 GMT -8
This might sound dumb, but should a typical brass tender have all the wheels on one side getting power from the same rail, or should the trucks be 'scrambled' to provide more redundant pickup if just that item is still on powered rails?
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Post by bnsf971 on Sept 5, 2012 15:45:23 GMT -8
This might sound dumb, but should a typical brass tender have all the wheels on one side getting power from the same rail, or should the trucks be 'scrambled' to provide more redundant pickup if just that item is still on powered rails? Historically, all brass tender wheels will pick up from one side only. The engine picks up from the other rail. |
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Post by calzephyr on Sept 8, 2012 17:29:05 GMT -8
This might sound dumb, but should a typical brass tender have all the wheels on one side getting power from the same rail, or should the trucks be 'scrambled' to provide more redundant pickup if just that item is still on powered rails? A typical brass tender picks up power from the left rail and the loco as you know from the right rail. Some of the early brass models did not have that extra brass post that retains the truck in its original position and the truck could do a 360 when it is off the rail. I have the centipede type tenders on many of my locos since Union Pacific is one of my favorites and the KTM model has no post for the lead truck. The Overland and Key models of the same tender has a built in way of retaining the lead truck in its correct position. The lead truck on the KTM models can be turned 360 so it shorts out when it is not right in line with the rear trucks picking up power. Larry |
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Post by selector on Sept 11, 2012 8:44:21 GMT -8
Thanks, fellas.
Crandell
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Post by northern on Sept 14, 2012 17:39:05 GMT -8
I am sorry that I forgot to follow up on my problem.
The problem was the pin section on the locomotive. There was an insulated washer that was split in half. I replaced the washer and the engine with the tender runs fine.
I do not know why the engine ran with the other tender, perhaps the pull on the tender on the pin section was somehow different and did not short out, while the original tender did.
I checked a few of my old brass locomotives and found a few insulated washers were decomposing and were also split. So I have been replacing the washers on an ongoing basis.
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