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Servicing Tender Drive Loco’s - Correct wheel set direction


96RAF

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I have pulled apart a tender driven loco as a wheel on the loco wheel set had come loose. However, upon removing the wheel set & refixing the wheel to the axle I have forgotten which way the wheel sets need to go back in. My question is this, is there a particular way the wheels/axles have to go back in regarding power pick up and positive & negative? The axles appear to have a black bush on one side and I'm not sure whether these are supposed to be on the opposite side as the pick up wheels on the tender? I have previously damaged a power controller by putting a wheel set in the wrong way and ended up taking the loco to a shop for correct reassembly. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

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Loco driving wheels with the black insulating bush between the axle and the wheel should be on the same side of the loco as the tender wheels that do not have traction tyres.  This is normally on the lefthand side of the loco looking forward from the cab.

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Depending on the locomotive...

 

If there are no wiper pick ups on the loco wheels.

 

The insulated Locomotive wheels should be on the same side as the tender traction tyres.

 

Commonly, the centre driving wheels are insulated on both sides.

 

Pickup is through the non insulated wheels, to the axles, chassis block, drawbar screw, drawbar, and brass fingers to the tender pin.

 

Tender pin to "right hand" brush, looking at the motor faceplate.

 

Left hand brush to motor block, via link wire, pin, or screw. Thence to the axles and non traction tyre tender wheels.

 

 

 

If there are wiper pick ups on one side of the loco wheels.

 

The insulated Locomotive wheels should be on the same side as the wiper pick ups on the loco.

 

This is usually the same side as the traction tyres on the tender.

 

Commonly, the centre driving wheels are insulated on both sides.

 

Pickup is through the insulated wheels, to the wipers,  through wiring to the insulated drawbar screw, drawbar, and brass fingers to the tender pin.

 

Tender pin to "right hand" brush, looking at the motor faceplate.

 

Left hand brush to motor block, via link wire, pin, or screw. Thence to the axles and non traction tyre tender wheels.

 

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Sarah - are you sure your description for locos without pick-ups is correct?  The circuit must be from one rail via the non-insulated loco wheels to axles to block to drawbar to tender motor, returning via the non-tyred tender wheels to the opposite rail.  Thus insulated loco driving wheels must be on the opposite rail to the tyred tender wheels.  Or am I having a 'senior moment'?

Looking again at a number of service sheets, I was wrong in my response to the OP as the insulated driving wheels are normally on the righthand side of the loco rather than the lefthand side as I originally stated.

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I have done a lot of these lately. The early Ringfields had the non insulated wheels on the brush side of the motor, the insulated wheels are the ones with the gears on these go on the drive side. The centre wheels seem to differ with each release some have a solid wheel on the brush side and insulated on the drive side, others have insulated wheels on both sides. The centre wheels also have half flanges, not as big as the flange on the driven wheels. The later ones had wipers on each wheel and from what I have seen Hornby used the same wheels all round, I may be wrong. From my experience Hornby insulated wheels always have the gear. The other issue you might get is if the tender has a pony truck like on a A4 or A1/A3, on early ones the non insulated wheel goes on the brush side, on the later ones with wipers the non insulated wheel goes on the gear side, although I am sure when they went to wipers on all wheels, I think the pony truck wheels are both insulated. So really the only way I can see you can get it wrong is if you get the centre wheels or the pony truck wheels the wrong way round. If you got the driven wheels the wrong way round you would have no drive.

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@Going Spare   I read the initial post but it was a case of interpreting what you see and jumping to the wrong conclusion.  To get the wheels on the loco the right way round, the insulated ones have to be on the opposite side to the the motor drive wheels in the tender, or the same side as the motor brushes. The centre ones are sometimes insulated on both sides so obviously these don't matter.

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Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm relatively new to model railways and I'm finding some of the Ringfield maitenence work to be a little tricky. I'm yet to master the art of reassembling wheel sets on loco's when there's wires everywhere and in this instance I've broken some off their solder. Fortunately for me there are a couple of people in Melbourne who do repairs on the old English stuff and still have parts. Cheers again for the speedy replies. Mark

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Depending on the locomotive...

 

If there are no wiper pick ups on the loco wheels.

 /media/tinymce_upload/78172d937ea1fb96cde4a8ec13ffceaf.jpg

The insulated Locomotive wheels should be on the opposite side to the tender traction tyres.

 

Commonly, the centre driving wheels are insulated on both sides.

 

Pickup is through the non insulated wheels, to the axles, chassis block, drawbar screw, drawbar, and brass fingers to the tender pin.

 

Tender pin to "right hand" brush, looking at the motor faceplate.

 

Left hand brush to motor block, via link wire, pin, or screw. Thence to the axles and non traction tyre tender wheels.

 

 

 

If there are wiper pick ups on one side of the loco wheels.

 

Also see the lower illustration on the Service Sheet above...

/media/tinymce_upload/b7cd38d17122c274c769cf65356090ab.jpg 

The insulated Locomotive wheels should be on the same side as the wiper pick ups on the loco.

 

This is usually the same side as the traction tyres on the tender.

 

Commonly, the centre driving wheels are insulated on both sides.

 

Pickup is through the insulated wheels, to the wipers,  through wiring to the insulated drawbar screw, drawbar, and brass fingers to the tender pin.

 

Tender pin to "right hand" brush, looking at the motor faceplate.

 

Left hand brush to motor block, via link wire, pin, or screw. Thence to the axles and non traction tyre tender wheels.

 

 

@GS

 

Oops...I managed to foul that up a bit...

Correction above...

 

With illustrations...

 

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