power pickups for locomotives
Would anyone know what type of metal should be used for pickups at the wheels ? as i ordered some copper at .03 and a bronze mix at .3 , but what would be the best to make these ? as i can not buy them
any help on this would be very helpful
thank you.
Comments
The pickups on most of my locomotives looks to be copper, but others look like nickle silver.
i have a old TRIX the same as BR one (the Elok 05) the pickups are really slim , but wonder due to copper is very soft , i know you can get different blends of metals , the best would be copper as it is soft , but so is GOLD
so they do blend alloys with copper and tin so on so on , what what type they use on them i am not sure ?
i guess i can only wait , would be nice to know though .
thanks
well all i can do is wait , feels like not a slow boat to china but a slow boat FROM china.
Hello:
Thin bronze is the best, it is flexible, but does not deform. For the E 05 problem, I would solder a thin bronze wire to the part that goes on the 2-wheel front boogie which is circled in the picture below. It should be in the same position as the thin finger that originally touched the wheel. Some adjustments to the shape of the wire may be needed to have the wire touch with enough strength to ensure contact, but not too strong to prevent the wheel from turning.
Ulrich
thanks BR understood , i have both coming from CHIIIINA , it is a Phosphor Bronze , and the copper is near pure , but the bronze is .3 mm thick which might be a little thick , i will have to make a template so i can press onto the material so i can get the cable onto my cutter with a diamond tip die and cut it , what i will use as a template ? maybe a thick plastic , and then lightly tap around it to make the marking into the copper/bronze , or what ever one i use as i will have to see the quality of the metals.
Hey BR how come my user manual does not have that diagram ? mine is the same color and also came with some sort of ticket which has where it was bought in Germany. ?
0.3mm is somewhat hefty. I would suggest something thinner. Maybe there is a hobby shop in some of the bigger Australian cities which can send you the material.
Ulrich
yes indeed BR i wish i could , problem it seems that most of the money making things in hobby shops have leaned towards RC cars and planes so on , any contacting them is like mission impossible gone wrong . LOL , no matter , there is hobby shops around , though one is at least a hour and a half away drive and no public transport (not because of pandemic ) it is just the way it is , and the last time i went i was given the words : " i don know i just work ere"
GROAN OH GROAN it be to me. .3 of a mm is not too bad , it would help for making a contact by sitting a little higher making the truck force downwards but just worried about making it sit too high , all i can do is wait for the long boat ( the little red engine) do its delivery ) if i had a rolling press it would be a different story , but Bronze ? mmm and it does not help the boat hurry along .
BTW BR, thank you for the help ,
Same in my part of the world, the two closest hobby stores are about 100 miles away, at least they are nice to customers.
Ulrich
Australia ....... says it all :P , where i live is like a between worlds , cities are rush rush do not give a damm , country is ok , the rural are not decided , but you can not blame all , as generally we all still have the community well being. i guess it is a problem world wide , if it aint made for them ......buy new or too hard basket approach. there plenty of hobby shops here in AU , but what they stock , and how to get to them is pretty hard , i wish the so called "technology" catch up to the idea "ONLINE BUYING"