Model Railroading > Electrical problems with Genesis MP15

I'm getting spotty pickup on a Genesis MP15. I opened it up, double checked connections, etc., couldn't find an issue... and then remembered others mentioned that the truck/wheel electrical connection was known to be unreliable. Sure enough, if I press the side frames, power comes back. Does anyone know of a way to improve the performace? Are their replacement sideframes or axles? Is there a lubricant that helps?

---

Did you put a NMRA guage on the flanges ?,maybe to tight ?,Ed

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

From the picture it looks really dirty on the trucks and axle. I would try cleaning the ends of the axles and the contact strip where the axles slide in. If you look at the picture one of the axles has hair or something wrapped around it and not sure what the white stuff is.

Chad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> not sure what the white stuff is.

The white stuff is weathering that was done when the electrical connections were protected. It ran fine for months after that.

inCHI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm getting spotty pickup on a Genesis MP15. I
> opened it up, double checked connections, etc.,
> couldn't find an issue... and then remembered
> others mentioned that the truck/wheel electrical
> connection was known to be unreliable. Sure
> enough, if I press the side frames, power comes
> back. Does anyone know of a way to improve the
> performace? Are their replacement sideframes or
> axles? Is there a lubricant that helps?

The design truck looks much like the same one used in the Genesis F3/7's and GP7/9's. I had this same issue a while back with FP7's and found the following on line info relating to the issue and possible fixes. Two are from Tony's train Exchange and the other from a T.O. post Ted "funnelfan" Curphey made. I've tried the filing fix for the trucks with mixed success. I have yet to try the NWSL washer/wheel replacement fix:

http://www.tonystrains.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=617

I have been struggling with several Genesis F-Units for some time now and was determined to find a solution to their erratic performance. I have a CB&Q ABBA set of F-3s and a Rock Island F2, all delivered with the substandard MRC sound decoders. All of these units exhibited the same issue. They would stop and "reboot" every few feet as they traveled around the railroad. I couldn't tell if this was do to an intermittent short, a problem with power pickup, or an issue with the decoder.

I started my debugging with the RI F2 since that was the worst offender. I first replaced the MRC decoder with a Soundtraxx LC decoder. While this gave me much better sound and motor control it did NOT solve the "reboot" issue. I next did some testing to find out if there was a problem with the motor. It bench tested just fine. Further testing confirmed that the problem is with power pickup in the trucks.

My next approach was to solder the leads to the truck sideframes instead of relying on the plastic clips. This did NOT help. A closer inspection of the trucks finally revealed the real problem, and led me to the fix.

The wheelsets have a split axle with a plastic gear in the middle. The axle ends extend into a metal bearing plate in the sideframes. This bearing plate should transfer both the electrical current and weight of the locomotive between the wheels and the trucks. The wheelsets fit into a gear tower and are held in place with a plastic plate that snaps onto the bottom of the truck. The two plastic sides of the gear tower have slots for the axles. The problem is that the slots are NOT DEEP ENOUGH. The plastic part of the axles rubs on top of the plastic gear tower slots, causing the axles ends to "float" in the bearing plates resulting in intermittent electrical contact.

The solution: Remove the sideframes and wheelsets. Take a small round file and file the axle slots in the gear tower to make them deeper. (You might want to completely disassemble the trucks to do this. I didn't bother since a few plastic filings shouldn't be too harmful.) Once this was done and the trucks were reassembled the problem was GONE! This fixed all my Genesis F-units. Yes I still have the other issues with the MRC decoders, primarily poor slow speed control, but the electrical issues are solved.

Don W.

---

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,2488735,2488901#msg-2488901

Date: 06/11/11 20:19
Re: Athearn Genesis F3 not All-Wheel Pickup?
Author: funnelfan

Actually a friend has a set of the Genesis F-units, and the B-unit also has electrical pickup issues as well. The problem is with the metal pickup embedded in the sideframes that has cups that are supposed to rest against the ends of the axles, but the actual contact is hit and miss. I think it's a very poor way to make electrical contact. The old way with the inside brass bronze bearings and the metal side plates was always a 100% guaranteed connection with all wheels. Now you're lucky if 50% of the wheels make contact at any given point.

Ted Curphey
Cheney, WA

---

http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/loconews/athearn_genesis_pickup_problems.htm

Athearn Genesis Pickup Problems Fixed

Athearn Genesis F7 Intermittent Power Loss Repair

A problem existed with my Athearn Genesis F7 units and after some analysis effort I have found a way to correct it.

Due to the commonality of design many Athearn Genesis diesels may reflect the same symptoms. This problem exists with DCC decoder installations since DCC is more discriminating about power interruptions.

The problem is in the truck design itself and is caused in part by lateral travel of the wheel axle which has a a large chamfer on the journal bearing end which loses contact when moving out of range of the contact plate. Another component exists because the side frame containing the contact plate is precisely molded in place and centered in the wheel journal which is 0.060 in inside diameter to a mating wheel shaft outside diameter of 0.057 leaving a deficit of 0.003 between diameters. Simply put precise alignment of axes means no contact is possible.

The system works because the gear box clearances are lose enough to allow gravity to slightly misaligned the axis between wheel axle and journal bearing making contact with the contact plate albeit intermittent. Note the side frame is mechanically and rigidly attached to the gearbox which prevents the contact plate from floating on the axle to make contact.

Solution: Reduce lateral side travel and ensure electrical circuit with contact plate:

This was accomplished by increasing the journal wheel shaft length by 0.030 that limits and reduces lateral travel and adding a very small amount of Aristo-Electrolub to the journal bearing cavity to ensure electrical continuity with the wheel. The Northwest Shortline Wheel #37291-4 has the correct length shaft and replaces the Athearn wheel.

The attached drawing offers the procedure used to correct the problem I experienced after installing a QSI Titan Sound Decoder.

The engine has been tested and is running as it should with great sound!

Lathan S.

---

Thanks MarkG, that gives alot of helpful leads on what to try.

I tried Mark's NWSL wheel replacement solution to spotty pickup on a Genesis GP-9, but the problem persists. I've tried squeezing the truck sideframes and adding Atlas Electrolube to the axle-sideframe contacts, all to no avail. I'm at my wit's end.

Art House

aehouse Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I tried Mark's NWSL wheel replacement solution to
> spotty pickup on a Genesis GP-9, but the problem
> persists. I've tried squeezing the truck
> sideframes and adding Atlas Electrolube to the
> axle-sideframe contacts, all to no avail. I'm at
> my wit's end.
>
> Art House

You might have one of those problems that exceeds reasonable solutions. Have you thought about adding wipers to the wheels to "bypass" intermittent contact between the axle end and pickup bars?