Anybody making their own electrical pick ups- advice needed please

Putting this thread into Hints & Tips as I need some hints, tips and opinions on the 0F build, this way comments won't become lost within the Spaceship thread as it were.

Firstly I dislike sprung pick ups as they never seem to work well for me and are often visible inside the frames, secondly the 9F is a very tightly packed component model around the frames with inner frame bulkheads highly viisible, so I have to make my own wiper pick ups which can be descreetly formed and located against the inner frame faces. Placing wires under the frame and above the brake rigging is not really an option either.

My idea is to drill a hole in the frame sides just below the radius of the wheel rim and to insert a plastic sleeve which will take a short length of spring wire soldered onto copper strip on the inside, the outer end of the spring wire would be bent against the rear of the wheel rim with a tiny contact pad of phospher bronze strip soldered on as a collector shoe... hopefully this will not act as a brake and place stress on the motor. I intend to make the front set, the second and fourth sets of driving wheels current collectors and obviously the loco will be going over to DCC at some point.

So my ask is what are folks thoughts on the best shape to bend the spring wire in order to maintain wheel contact... the inner end of the wire is soldered to the copper strip so that will anchor the wire into the desired position. Here is a picture of the loco frame with wheel rim diameter score marking made in readyness to drill holes for the pick ups. I'll put more photos up if needed and appreciate all comments and advice... once a design has been worked on I'll point back onto the Spaceship build again.

 

Thank you Rob and Brian for all your kind advice, I think I can insert copperclad pads down below in the frames and wires can connect to the fourth wheelset copperclad pad by running below the cross bulkheads and out of sight. If I drill the holes at the 10 o'clock position on wheels and 2 o'clock on the other side the spring wires can be held firm in place at certain places in the bulkhead cross plates and insulated with small pieces of plastic tube. I'll discard the phospher bronze strip as yes its a real pain soldering small pieces unless its a long wiper piece spring against the wheel flange as I did on the Fowler 2-6-4 tank... I also have to avoid the double compensation beams bur this route seems certainy doable. I'll post pictures as it happens. Thanks again chaps your responses are really much appreciated.

 

Thanks Paul, the tender is ready sorted for pick up wipers on all three axles... I've done this on the Patriot and Caprotti tenders. The ist set of drivers is best as thereis a hidden pocket of space within the frames just behind the cylinder block... the fourth wheelset also has a nicely placed inner shelf within the frames and again access is easy and unseem. The brake hanger concept is good but some of the hanger castings whilst look visually god from the outside have really poorly cast fixing pins so I think it would be a lot of faff to do on this kit. I'll go with 1st and 4th wheels wiper pick up and allthree sets on the tender.

 

I'll check these out Ken as I've not heard of them before despite parusing the Gaugemaster web site... must have missed them. Thank you for the heads up.