wipers and pads.
The stock wheel wipers work ok, but they are stiff. in order to get good contact with the wheel, they have to press pretty hard against the wheel, and that hard contact, along with the lack of springyness in the wiper material , will cause the wheel wiper to wear into two, over time, if your locomotive works as hard as mine do. Over the years the wiper parts have changes I have seen some that looked like they were shim brass, and others that looked like thick phosphor bronze. the former were useless, and the latter was usable, but less than Ideal. both of mine have wipers fabricated with springy phospor bronze wire from Micro-Mark.
The contact pads between the frame and the truck, is just less than ideal engineering. You have to rely on wiper to wheel, and wheel to rail contact. It just doesn't pay to have anothe rmoveable contact that isn't necessary. It may not cause trouble now, but it is bound to some day. If you get a super fine wire, and run it through a hole in the frame directly to the motor (or decoder, if you go that route), that is one less thing that can go wrong later.
You want some very fine, supper flexible wire though, or it will interfere with truck swing, causing tracking problems, so unless you have that super flexible wire, the contacts at the top of the truck are preferable to too stiff wire. they are just one more maintenance issue on a locomotive that has plenty already.
Bill Nelson
Speaking of which, I don't understand why everyone replaces the stock wipers and pads. Mine were pretty dirty when I got it and it still ran well. I guess I got a good one out of the bunch and should consider myself lucky.
The stock wheel wipers work ok, but they are stiff. in order to get good contact with the wheel, they have to press pretty hard against the wheel, and that hard contact, along with the lack of springyness in the wiper material , will cause the wheel wiper to wear into two, over time, if your locomotive works as hard as mine do. Over the years the wiper parts have changes I have seen some that looked like they were shim brass, and others that looked like thick phosphor bronze. the former were useless, and the latter was usable, but less than Ideal. both of mine have wipers fabricated with springy phospor bronze wire from Micro-Mark.
The contact pads between the frame and the truck, is just less than ideal engineering. You have to rely on wiper to wheel, and wheel to rail contact. It just doesn't pay to have anothe rmoveable contact that isn't necessary. It may not cause trouble now, but it is bound to some day. If you get a super fine wire, and run it through a hole in the frame directly to the motor (or decoder, if you go that route), that is one less thing that can go wrong later.
You want some very fine, supper flexible wire though, or it will interfere with truck swing, causing tracking problems, so unless you have that super flexible wire, the contacts at the top of the truck are preferable to too stiff wire. they are just one more maintenance issue on a locomotive that has plenty already.
Bill Nelson