Springfield Show Report - All Photos Now Live

[peteski]

I'm not sure if there is reason to be excited about the MTL pickup system or not. It is not all wheel pickup. It is only half axle but both ends of the axle make contact with the plates so you end up with redundancy. One truck will pick up left rail, one will pick up right as it stands right now. We have one of the track cleaning cars setting in the shop and that is exactly how it is wired.

You may be able to replace the MTL wheel sets with Kato or Bachmann and get all wheel pickup but that is yet to be seen as I am not ready to buy a $100 track cleaning car to pull the trucks off of it.

I guess I missed that announcement.  Sounds exactly like the tender trucks of the IM's AC-12 are designed.  They have metal plates on both sideframes but electrically only one side picks up electricity.

Why is MT doing this?  Is it for their freight or passenger trucks?  That implies that MT will also start making metal wheels, right?

[SkipGear]

I may need to make a correction to my statement. The trucks may be all wheel pickup but if so, they are not needle point pick up. I will look closely at our track cleaning car when I go into work in the morning and let you know which pickup scheme it is.

[peteski]

I may need to make a correction to my statement. The trucks may be all wheel pickup but if so, they are not needle point pick up. I will look closely at our track cleaning car when I go into work in the morning and let you know which pickup scheme it is.

Oh, I think I get it now. MT designed a new freight truck with electric pickup for their track cleaning car. They are no longer using Kato caboose truck.

[Sokramiketes]

I may need to make a correction to my statement. The trucks may be all wheel pickup but if so, they are not needle point pick up. I will look closely at our track cleaning car when I go into work in the morning and let you know which pickup scheme it is.

It looks like all wheel pickup, but the wipers contact the face of each wheel:



Seems awfully intrusive appearance wise...

[eric220]

Daniel's Photo

This is the Charles Center building that was the Baltimore hq for Chessie.  It's on N. Charles Street just up from the old B&O building at the corner of Charles and Baltimore St., and one of the first buildings erected in Hopkins Plaza.  It's a cool building, and for those who are so inclined, once sported a big Chessie System logo on the glass of the lobby.

That's a very cool office tower. Too bad it's a little too modern for my layout.

[wm3798]

It's especially cool that they worked in the raised foundation patio that's there on the prototype.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Hopkins+Plaza,+Baltimore,+MD&hl=en&ll=39.290895,-76.615133&spn=0.001283,0.002064&sll=38.775684,-76.072128&sspn=0.233931,0.528374&oq=hopkins+plaza&t=h&hnear=Hopkins+Plaza,+Baltimore,+Maryland+21201&z=20

Lee

[peteski]

It looks like all wheel pickup, but the wipers contact the face of each wheel:

Seems awfully intrusive appearance wise...

Thanks for the photo. This might be acceptable for a track cleaning car but it doesn't look good enough for a regular model car.  It also looks like it'll add quite a bit if friction to the truck.  Nothing good to see here - I'm moving on.

[wazzou]

It doesn't seem like it would be that much more effort to have the contacts at the wheel's back rather than on the faces...

[DKS]

Nothing good to see here - I'm moving on.

Totally agree. Those trucks seem like a giant step backwards in time to the 70s, with the added disappointment of bad cosmetics in addition to serious friction. Major head-scratcher.

[wazzou]

Those have got to be the widest wheel treads in the marketplace.

[peteski]

Those have got to be the widest wheel treads in the marketplace.

Yeah, those look almost as bad as the old Atlas/Roco/Rivarossi metal wheels (with plastic centers).

[peteski]

It doesn't seem like it would be that much more effort to have the contacts at the wheel's back rather than on the faces...

The current design makes the metal pickup plates self-retaining. If the wipers were in the back, the metal plates would have to be fastened to the plastic truck somewhere. Otherwise there would be nothing to press the wipers against the wheel backs.  It would be doable but the plastic truck would have to be modified (that is very expensive).  In the current design, the plastic truck appears to be unmodified stock item.

[wazzou]

Couldn't they just be fabbed to bend to the backs and sprung to make contact?

[sirenwerks]

That's a very cool office tower. Too bad it's a little too modern for my layout.

FWIW, One Charles Center is a Mies Van Der Rohe design and was built in '62.  While not as well known as his works in Chicagoland, it was significant in Charm City for being the first piece of skin and bones modernist architecture in the area.  Since, it's inspired a lot of crap downtown.

[peteski]

Couldn't they just be fabbed to bend to the backs and sprung to make contact?

If the contact strips were pressed against the wheel backs then the other piece of the metal plate would try to move towards the center of the truck. Unless it is fastened to the inside of the sideframe, it would just flop around.  I suppose that maybe the metal plate could be redesigned to maybe wrap around the bolster but that would complicate the shape of that part and the assembly of truck.

In the current design the springing action of the pickup strips rubbing agains the outside surface of the wheel actually presses the other part of the metal plate tight against the inside of the sideframe. No need for any retainers or for modifying the existing stock trucks.