Model Railway Forum

Still use mine every time I solder, as its my Go To iron. As I said mine is set to 375C but whether that is the actual tip temperature I don't know?
I have a taper tip in use but can change to a chisel bit though hardly ever need to.

But back to topic question Have you tested the wheels to the springs to see if there is continuity and if necessary fitted the fine U shaped wire to by pass the insulated bush per wheel set?

Surely you don’t want to bypass the insulated bush Brian. Won’t that make the whole axle and wheels live?

Only on one side if both wheels on the one axle have insulated bushes. Otherwise there is no connection to the axle at all ! The video I linked to earlier shows the problem and its simple fix. See post #10

I think Barry said one wheel was live and the other insulated.

Said he made sure the insulated wheels were on different sides. Perhaps they are both insulated.

He said one side had insulated bushes but I cant see any reference to the opposite side?
A lot of rolling stock is sold with both wheels insulated from the axle to make production cheaper and simple.
But if Barry has proved conclusively that one wheel on an axle is directly connected to the axle, and as far as I can see he hasn't so far stated this, then the issue has to be elsewhere. Plated axle, Poor soldered joint etc

He said the plastic bushes are on opposite sides but I guess the 'live' wheels could also be insulated but not noticeably.

There is only one insulating bush per wheel set. So when refitting two wheel sets, it's just a case of making sure the insulated wheels (2 axles) are on opposite sides. I think the problem is to do with the soldering. I will almost certainly dismantle and start again. As I said previously, if you apply power to the two solder joints (one on each of two axles) which connect the spring on the axle to the wire running to the light bar, the lights work, but if you apply power to the two springs or even the uninsulated wheels, the lights do not work. So it has to be some form of dry joint. The springs are a gold coloured - so may be they are brass?
I have done exactly as shown in this YouTube video by Dave Watson at Dean Park - although I was not fitting a capacitor, and I used the original wheel sets and then attached the pick-up springs - Dave used a new wheel set with springs attached from DCC Concepts.
The light installation starts at about seven minutes in on the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPsJpBWBwk4&t=1062s