Question about AZL Mikes

Hi there, and happy new year to everybody.


This morning I carried out a test on my nice CB&Q Heavy. I put the locomotive and its tender wheels up in a craddle, then I set a pair of electrically powered wires on each axle.


From this test it appears that none of the locomotive's axles is electrically connected. No driver, and no idler. Only the tender's 4 axles pick up the juice.


Is it the same for you guys, and is it normal?


Dom

 

Yes... it is normal. That is why there is a driveshaft between the loco and the tender.

 

It appears that my Heavy Mikes do the same thing, however they are not completely electrically isolated from the tender. There are 4 wires going between the tender and the locomotive. 2 of the wires carry power from the drivers to tender. Inside the locomotive there are two copper plates that are spring loaded to push down on the driver axles for electrical pick up. If I place the locomotive on powered track and stick a business card under the tender to keep it off the rails, the engine will sometimes run, but mostly just sit there. Power pick up from the drivers is poor on mine. Power pick up from the tender must be awesome, because I didn't notice any operational problems before.

 

All 5 of my AZL Light Mikes are the same way. Up side down Wheels UP power pickup from any one wheel on the loco is not the best, But right side up and on CLEAN track they all run like a champ.
I guess it's the combination of all the wheels feeding power that makes the difference. 2 of my 5 needed about 30 minutes of run time forward and in reverse on my figure 8 test track before the hesitation and random stopping completely went away.
The other 3 ran like champs right out of the box. And I've seen other AZL Mikes do the same.
I was at a show a few months back where I saw a brand new AZL Mike taken out of the box un packed for the first time and placed on the track where it proceeded to pull a string of heavyweight passenger cars the entire show, All day SAT and SUN with out a single problem.

I just hope they don't sell out before I get my Taxes back, as I plan to add 2 maybe 3 more to my fleet along with a few of AZL's upcoming new releases.

 

Ok guys many thanks for your feedback, I'm reassured. However my locomotive is still needing heavy cleaning, unfortunately I've very little time for (Z scale) modelrailroading in this present time... But one of my first action will be cleaning this jewel's wheels indeed!

Dom