Thurs 4-16-2026 8:22 p.m.
Having modified a "plastic" Tyco Diesel Power Truck for small locos, it occurred to me that it should be possible to do the same thing with a stock Bachmann or Tyco "sidewinder" or Mantua Metal Power Truck.
It starts by taking a "conducting" wheel set (that is, one brass wheel and one plastic wheel mounted on a steel axle) out of one of the metal Bachmann or Tyco power trucks or a metal Mantua power truck. The wheel set can be disassembled, and then the steel axle can be replaced with a solid plastic axle of the same dimensions. A thin fiber washer (or washer made from thin gasket material) needs to be placed between the brass wheel and the metal power truck chassis to prevent electrical shorting. Then the brass wheel set may be flipped around and installed on side opposite to the existing "conducting" brass wheel set.
Now comes the trick. Modelers have been fiddling with extra pick-ups and sound cams for some time (that is, a metal wiper attached to a piece of printed circuit board material. A similar wiper subassembly could be fabricated and attached to a metal power truck chassis so that the pick-up wiper contacts the brass or metal wheel on the wheel set with the replacement plastic axle.
Lacking a plastic axle, the brass wheel could also be drilled to a larger diameter, and the brass wheel and steel axle could be insulated from each other with a small annular plastic bushing. Agan, the fiber washer is probably still needed to separate the brass / metal wheel from the metal power truck chassis.
I think the fun part of all of this would be fabricating some kind of interesting superstructure or shell to go on to the power truck. How about a powered Mantua bobber caboose which runs all by itself? How about a powered bobber caboose which pulls another unpowered bobber caboose (or a string of them)?
