Model Railroading > Kato HO Scale RS2

Anyone ever hard wire one of these?  If so please let me know how you did it.  I'm having trouble with electrical pick up on a fleet of these locos with sound decoders installed.    Kato's electrical pick up design of metal on metal is not too reliable in the long run.  Thanks.

In my earlier post about using older KATO SD40-2 trucks with the metal to metal contacts in newer SD38-2 bodies built with hardwired trucks TCnR posted a link from TO about the hardwired conversion of older Kato models. He also posted a link to www.dufordmodelworks.com who gives step by step instructions with photos.

In my post I hardwired 4 of the old trucks for the new units in about an hour. I had done the conversion a few times before but if you can solder wire to a brass strip you are good to go. Use minimum solder account globs might interfere with wheels and such. Tin the wire and strip with solder first then hold them together and touch them with the hot iron to make the joint.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Hard wired the truck pick-ups directly to the decoder today on my RS2 & though the unit runs much better,  I'm still experiencing intermittent power losses though fewer than before.
I'd love to put a keep alive capacitor in this unit, but there is so little room in the RS2.

The next steps would be to clean the wheels to remove any crud on the treads.

Soldering the new pick up wires to the decoder board would also be a good idea for long term reliability.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Wheels & track cleaned - wires are direcly soldered to decoder - I'm at a loss.  I have another 4 units to do, we'll see how they fare...