May 25, 2001

Kato Pickup Problems with Age.

As we predicted in this Tony's Tech Bulletin Kato's changing of their pick-up mechanics is beginning to significantly impact reliability and the problem may be aggravated over time. The Berilium/Copper strip below the hand rail deck may lose some stiffness therby breaking contact with boss on the truck shoe pick-up. The best repair is to hard wire to the truck shoe or you can slightly bend the strip to restore tension. Symptoms range from the loco not running to jerky low speed performance.