Poor performance with Austrain’s NSW 80 class 421 etc.

These locos have blacked wheels and worst of all, where the axle bearings locate in the bogie pick up side plate, these slots during manufacture of the locos, have been painted. Paint being and insulator, this is affecting the electrical pick up via these “square bearing”. This paint causes very erratic running of the locos. This is even worse when the loco is converted to DCC. This paint has to be removed to give the best possible contact area for the bronze bearings to contact on to, to enable the best possible electrical pick up.

Keeping the track clean, is hard enough and with these “dirty slots” this loco mechanism can be a real bad performer.

The disassembled 80 class bogie with axles removed. Notice the paint on the square axle bronze bushes. These locate into the plate slots. The slots were painted but the paint was not removed and this is the result. A very poor contact. I am amazed that the loco even runs. Scrape away the paint from the axle bearing surfaces and from the slots. While disassembled add a small amount of “Electrolube” to the axles and bearings to aid in better conductivity. Re-assembly the bogie and fit to loco. Also remove paint from where the decoder red and black wires solder to the plate assembly.

The Austrains NR and the 421 are chemically blackened. This also creates a problem to a much lessor extent. If you are experiencing problems, clean the axle slots and bearings as above. The photo shows an NR bogie dismantled with the slots “nearly clean” and no evidence of residue on the bearings.