AM locomotives already HAVE all-wheel pick-up. The side without the brushes is connected to the frame through the gear towers. All wheels on that side are thus connected creating 'all-wheel' pick-up. The weak point may be the tower connection. On the SD-60's I think all wheel really means 8 or 10 wheel with one or both wheels on the middle axles left out of the action.
Adding brushes to the frame side pick-up still leaves the frame hot unless you take other measures to insulate the gear towers from the frame. Without this isolation the motor is no more electrically isolated from the frame than before adding the brushes. Ben Trousdale > Jack: > > You are correct. For DCC operation, the motor must be electrically > isolated from the frame. As others have pointed out, you can use the > frame with wire lead attached as one of your power pick ups to your > DCC decoder. However, in my experience, using the frame for power > pick up is not as reliable as all-wheel pick up � though others > have > found this arrangement satisfactory. > > I converted my two Train Masters to all-wheel pick up and it was very > easy to do. > > As delivered, you will notice that the truck side with the wire pick > up has a plastic mounting bracket for the bronze pick up wire that > contacts the wheels. The red wire runs from a small screw in this > plastic mounting bracket. > > AM has very conveniently drilled holes on both sides of the trucks > that will accommodate the mounting bracket. So I simply ordered > extra plastic mounting brackets, bronze pick up wire, and screws from > AM. Just push the parts in place and run a wire from the pick up > screw to your decoder and viola! All-wheel pick up. > > I am doing this same change on my AM GP9s too. > > Hope this helps. If you have further questions, please feel free to > e-mail me. > > John Gibson > Rocklin, CA The poll results are in....... To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL, to reply to the sender, use REPLY. I do NOT know if this works on all e-mail software, but it works on some of the most common ones. For those of you on DIGEST mode, all REPLY messages go to the list. Change your membership, change your message settings, use our CALENDAR, view shared files or photos, view the list archives, GO TO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
