I have a Bachmann John Bull that runs amazingly well EXCEPT, wait for it..., at crawl speed, it invariably stops stalls on frog of the turnout to my stub siding. I really can't tell whether this is an electrical or mechanical issue. But assuming it is electrical, what if I could add pickups to the non-electrical locomotive "drive wheels"? (As you probably know, the power in this loco is provided by the motor located in the tender. The tender just pushes the inert locomotive along.) As shown in the attached drawing, it looks as though if the locomotive's two metal driver axels's left and right wheels were insulated from each other, pickups could be added to their axels. These pickups could be fed to the respective motor brushes. Does this make sense? Has anyone done any upgrades to one of these John Bulls?
i have one but have not noticed a dropping of power in any frog ... does yours loose power on just one frog, and pretty well every one ??
I have only one turnout. My Ho layout is only an oval with three straight on each side. One of the straight pieces on one side is a left hand switch which has a curved stub siding. Maybe my problem is mechanical vs.electrical, but I assumed that the loco's wheel base was shorter than the insulated part of the frog. I'll measure.
The insulated section of the Bachmann eztrck switch is 21mm; the John Bull's tender wheel base is 17.5mm. So, it has to stall when crossing that section unless there is sufficient momentum to carry it that 3.5mm. That's why I'd like to extend the effective pickup length.
I get the same problem, at any speed, with the Bachmann DeWitt Clinton. Wheelbase is too short to clear the frogs and since there's no flywheel, instant and brutal stop. But you just gave me an idea for an old Model Power 0-4-0 that has trouble in the same spots - at low speeds.
You didn't mention what track you are using, but if you only have one turnout, it would probably be much simpler to power the frog on the turnout than to try to rewire the loco. Adding pickups to the loco would certainly work though.
Hocritter1 by wvgca posted Nov 29, 2022 at 1:18 PM it would be a fair bit of work to add power pickups to the front of that, but in this case it might be worth it .. feeding power through the frog wouldn't work if it was a plastic frog i
In reply to MRLdave, my turnout, along with all the track is Bachmann EZtrack and the turnout frog is non-conductive. Also, no matter which way the turnout is thrown, current continues to flow through both divergent and main rails. This prevents me from being able to park a loco on the siding while another is going round and round the main oval. How can I change this to make current only follow the way the turnout is thrown?
