Early Athearn Big Boy Tender pick-up

[Teditor]

Spookshows review states that the tender on the N Scale Athearn Big Boy picks up on all wheels, the club I am in has a first run model with the MDC Decoder, the pick-up is woeful, I have removed and cleaned all the tender wheels but only the lead truck indicates that it has pickup, the other tender wheels have different axle assemblies, two with bearings (bushes) three with thin metal axles with the rear most one sprung by a centrally located coil spring.

I am curious how the tender can be all wheel pick-up as the wheels all seem to be insulated from the axles and I didn't detect any sort of wipers except on the tenders lead truck, is it possible for any of these wheels to go in the wrong way.

Ted (Teditor) Freeman
From the Land Down Under.

[spookshow]

I haven't dissected the tender, so I'm not sure how it works exactly. But when I put the loco wheels-up on my workbench and apply current to the various tender wheels, it runs.

-Mark

[Teditor]

Thanks Mark, I certainly wasn't questioning your review, just curious as to how, I removed the tender frame and took the wheel sets out one at a time, I think I may just delve into it a bit more.

I really appreciate your reply.

When I removed the lead truck on the tender I was surprised to see the wires to the pick up strips crossed over, I looked at reversing the truck but the wires would not allow it.

After cleaning all the wheels the loco still stalled in some specific areas that other locos breezed through, I think that I should drop the drivers and see if there are wipers or half axle frame contact and/or any contaminates (ie; oil/grease) that could cause bad conductivity.

When the loco stalled, some finger pressure on the tender seemed to help, so the drivers are the next part I will look at.

Ted (Teditor) Freeman
From the Land Down Under.

[mmagliaro]

Did you start by flipping your engine on its back and touching the various drivers and tender wheels with test leads?  That will tell you right away which wheels are dead so you can start investigating.

[NDave]

I don't know about the early release Big Boy, but I have dismantled and installed a new decoder in the tender of my 2017 release Athearn Challenger... which I believe is similar/identical to the Big Boy tender released about the same time. In the 2017 Challenger tender, all wheels of the front truck and the front eight wheels of the rear, five-axle truck are used for electrical pickup. In the rear truck, wipers make contact with the back of wheels in the front four axles. If you removed/replaced these four wheel sets without realizing that, you may have bent the contacts so they are not correctly contacting the wheels, and thus not functioning.

[Teditor]

I will try the suggestions as mentioned when I am at the club tomorrow, there is every chance that I missed something or made an error in reassembly, I appreciate the assistance and will keep you posted.

Ted (Teditor) Freeman
From the Land Down Under

[Teditor]

Didn't get a chance for a real good look today, but there is tender pick-up beyond the tenders lead bogie, just not all at this stage.

I was unable to get any action through any of the drive wheels, so I will be going in a bit deeper yet.

The headlight no longer works, but I suspect this model was a globe not an LED.

Stay tuned, I should be able to get myself in a real pickle with this one.

But as we Aussies say "She'll be right Mate!"

Ted (Teditor) Freeman
From the Land Down Under.

[peteski]

Didn't get a chance for a real good look today, but there is tender pick-up beyond the tenders lead bogie, just not all at this stage.

I was unable to get any action through any of the drive wheels, so I will be going in a bit deeper yet.

The headlight no longer works, but I suspect this model was a globe not an LED.

Stay tuned, I should be able to get myself in a real pickle with this one.

But as we Aussies say "She'll be right Mate!"

Ted (Teditor) Freeman
From the Land Down Under.

I had to replace the headlight in my friend's Atheran Big Boy, and it was probably the most  awkward and difficult replacement I have ever done.  Many of the details glued on the nose had to be pried off, and a large part of the loco had to be disassembled.   I also seem to recall that it was a bad LED, not a light bulb).