Model Railroading > Rapido C36-7 Ditch Lights

The other day I received two Rapido NS C36-7 locomotives in the mail along with two NW C36-7s. I now have eight C30-7 and C36-7 in my collection. But I was disappointed when I tried my "NS 8534" which only had one ditch light work on the "front" end.

Checking the manual I had two options: the problem was either mechanical, or in the decoder program. I decided to separate the body and chassis. Pretty simple by just removing the coupler boxes and four screws by the fuel tank. A little wiggling back and forth and they were apart. No wires but instead six brass posts attached to the body that make contact with six pads on the ends of the chassis. I used a Q-Tip with alcohol to clean the contact areas. Then I reassembled the unit. I will say that I liked the length of the four screws which made it easier to screw back in.. Both ditch lights would now light so this corrected the problem! It may become a maintenance item depending on corrosion. but far easier than trying to squeeze a bundle of wires into the shell..

Unfortunately, this method of connecting the chassis to the shell and its multitude of lighting effects leaves a bit to be desired. This is not only a Rapido issue as both of the quality manufacturers (Rapido and ScaleTrains) use this method. As you found out, cleaning the terminals works a lot of the time. Something I have found that also works is to shim the circut board  closer with paper or cardboard. This seems to prevent issues down the road... Sometimes even tapping on the shell works, but that "fix" doesn't stay fixed for long...

Andy  

Put some of that conductive grease on top of the pins to inhibit corrosion and enhance the conductivity.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR