Hi All
I've noticed one of my Lima class 47s that I bought refurbished has an extra cable running to the non powered bogie with electrical contacts either side. It does run extremely smoothly over all the points with absolutely no hint of jerkiness even at crawling speeds. Better than most Lima or Hornby models. Worth adding this upgrade to all my locos? Is it something considered 'normal' for decent running?
Cheers.
Wiring kits for locomotives for extra pickup
Re: Wiring kits for locomotives for extra pickup
Hi Stonesfan
Yes most definitely. As most hornby and lima locomotives from around the time your class 47 was produced only had pickups on 1 side of each end or ( in the case if steam ) both parts, through the left uninsulated wheels on say the rail closest to the operator and through uninsulated wheels on the opposite rail at the motor end ( tender in steamers ), a lot of modellers ( myself included ) felt that adding extra pickups on the isolated wheels would potentially help with power collection.
Some lima diesels were not ( initially ) produced with pickups on both sides of the unpowered bogie, I bought a class 50 once which only had pickups on 1 side at both ends as described in the paragraph above and began exploring the possibility of adding pickups to collect from the right hand rail as if vieeed from above with the unpowered bogie away from me.
At the time I was unable to add the extra pickups as I didn't know about copperclad pcb board and phosphor bronze pickup strip as I do today and as a result the loco ( now in my brother's ownership ) is still in it's original unaltered condition.
More recently though, I have been mainly finding a fair few class 37s with extra pickups added and their performance is greatly improved with these. It can be further enhanced by fitting a cd motor drive kit available from Diesel-trains.co.uk ( £12.50 each ) and these sork an absolute treat. To see these in action I recommend checking out the OOBill youtube channel. Bill has done a good number of videos where he's fitted these cd motor conversion kits to lina diesels and the difference in performance and power draw is exceptional and well worth doing.
Going back to your original question though, I can fully recommend adding pickups on the isolated side of the unpowered bogie whenever possible.
Yes most definitely. As most hornby and lima locomotives from around the time your class 47 was produced only had pickups on 1 side of each end or ( in the case if steam ) both parts, through the left uninsulated wheels on say the rail closest to the operator and through uninsulated wheels on the opposite rail at the motor end ( tender in steamers ), a lot of modellers ( myself included ) felt that adding extra pickups on the isolated wheels would potentially help with power collection.
Some lima diesels were not ( initially ) produced with pickups on both sides of the unpowered bogie, I bought a class 50 once which only had pickups on 1 side at both ends as described in the paragraph above and began exploring the possibility of adding pickups to collect from the right hand rail as if vieeed from above with the unpowered bogie away from me.
At the time I was unable to add the extra pickups as I didn't know about copperclad pcb board and phosphor bronze pickup strip as I do today and as a result the loco ( now in my brother's ownership ) is still in it's original unaltered condition.
More recently though, I have been mainly finding a fair few class 37s with extra pickups added and their performance is greatly improved with these. It can be further enhanced by fitting a cd motor drive kit available from Diesel-trains.co.uk ( £12.50 each ) and these sork an absolute treat. To see these in action I recommend checking out the OOBill youtube channel. Bill has done a good number of videos where he's fitted these cd motor conversion kits to lina diesels and the difference in performance and power draw is exceptional and well worth doing.
Going back to your original question though, I can fully recommend adding pickups on the isolated side of the unpowered bogie whenever possible.
Re: Wiring kits for locomotives for extra pickup
Thank you for this advice. Another great time consuming facet to add to the hobby!! 
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