I recently bought a b1 4 6 0 tender drive loco.my problem is bad pickup from the track, the cause appears to be that there is no connection between loco pickup wheels and the tender,this leaves two small pairs of pickups on the tender.looking at the service sheet it shows power pickups but no cable.anyone got any ideas?,i have fired off emails to hattons and graham garish.

Check if the two wires on the drawbar between tender and loco are intact. I've managed to break one in the past with similar results.

If it is broken you can get spares from Farish direct for about £3.00 each.

Cheers
Dave.

thanks for youir quick reply dave on checking there are no wires between engine and tender fitted

Hi rabc

I'm you take a look here http://www.bachmann.co.uk/pdfs/GF_B1.pdf the drawbar is item 2 on the exploded diagram. You should have two solid wires which are underneath the drawbar, one on the left the other on the right. These are used to carry current between the loco and tender. It's too easy to either snap one, or move it so that it no longer rubs against the locating pins, either will cause the failure of current to flow.

Cheers
Dave

thanks again dave

As with all Farish tender-drive locoss there are no "wires" as such transferring power between loco and tender on the B1.

If you turn the loco upside down, fixed beneath the drawbar you will find two sprung contacts. You will also see that there are two half stubs on loco and the same on the tender, the contacts transfer power through these stubs between loco and tender. These need to make good but not tight contact.

Hope this explains!

Regards

Roy

Quote from: Roy L S on April 10, 2014, 08:28:08 PM
As with all Farish tender-drive locoss there are no "wires" as such transferring power between loco and tender on the B1.

If you turn the loco upside down, fixed beneath the drawbar you will find two sprung contacts. You will also see that there are two half stubs on loco and the same on the tender, the contacts transfer power through these stubs between loco and tender. These need to make good but not tight contact.

More concisely put than my effort. Thanks Roy.

Cheers
Dave

There does seem to be a bit of a weakness with this method of power transfer-

I've just purchased a secondhand A1 which is immaculate (and a decent price otherwise I'd not have been interested) but it appears that it has been held by the tender with the loco dangling.  It has three of the four copper wires bent randomly- the rear truck of an A1 has the same connectors as the loco to tender drawbar. 

I've had other locos where these wires have been bent- easy to fix but easy to undo.   Dapol's screwed wires are also very fragile, so not a better solution.  The small Ivatt seems to have the best of both worlds- hopefully this will be the new Bachmann standard.

All the very best
Les