Tender and wagon additional current pick ups

[Wobbleboxer]

I was watching a YouTube video earlier where the chap was fitting tail lights to HO wagons and using a current pick up method I'd not seen before. It involves a loose fitting spring over the axle of a wagon, shorting the axle to a wheel on one side and soldering the pickup wire to the spring. Repeat on a second axle for the return connection. Watch the video below from about 5 minutes to see it in action. He also talks about the benefits of this method over push contacts, namely minimal drag.

Ok, he's doing it HO, but there any reason it shouldn't work in G, although I couldn't find any retail kits for larger scales and would be interested if anyone has tried anything similar, in any scale, but especially G.

 

[jimmielx]

I saw that video last night too. Interesting stuff.
I am doing something similar in a few wagons.
My Annie and Clarabel have lighting in them with pickups via the axels. One axel does one rail, the other does the opposite one. Absolutely not enough on their own, but they are wired together and to the loco, so the whole train has plenty of pickups.
min this case I short the wheel to the axel with a piece of wire and then collect from the axel holders - bearings are metal. (Ignore the resistor on the other wheel - this allows a small current to flow through the axel so the coach can be detected by occupancy sensors).
On bogie stock I get better results. This coach has a light on the back - it will one day get interior lighting too.
Powered from the track with one bogie supplying each rail. Again with metal bearings and a metal bogie I pickup from a brass picture hook under the bogie!

Again, one side of each tyre is shorted directly to the axel, the other tyre is connected via a resistor for my current detection so isn’t relevant. The big resistor just drops the voltage to the lamp a bit - it’s probably a 12v lamp, but I can’t remember, it’s been working like that for about ten years!
I have one other coach with a similar pickup arrangement but that feeds a DCC function decoder, so I get control of the various lights including a colour changing directional lamp.
The lights on this are a bit flickery despite having a chunky stay-alive cap on the decoder - I do wonder if trying to get a direct pickup from the axel, rather than through the bogie, would help - might be worth a go.
Anyway, it’s certainly a method that can work. But after all this, if you can fit the LGB ball bearing pickup wheel sets, then I think those can’t be beaten - they are quite pricey though.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Typical type of pickup on passenger cars and steam tenders.

Aristo puts a brass grommet in the plastic sideframes, and many wheelsets are available that only have one wheel insulated from the axle:

Fuzzy picture of Aristo tender sideframe, the tenders have a nicer brass bushing, inserted through ring terminal

Passenger cars are similar, but a thin walled longer grommet is used, looser fit to axle.

Greg