bearings of the gear train 550 and velocity spikes in the transport of the sheets which are undesired due to the possible effect on the print quality in an alternative embodiment of the picker device illustrated in fig2 a and 26b the drag of the picker roller 548 on the sheets is reduced by disengaging the picker roller 548 from the picker motor 552 during the take up of the sheets this is done by arranging one of the intermediate gears on a pivot arm 562 which pivots the gear out of mesh with the other gears when the rotational speed of the picker roller 548 gear increases at the delivery of the leading edge of a sheet to the take up rollers 450 454 this disengagement allows the picker roller to effectively free wheel thereby reducing the drag on the sheets the drag is minimised if the pivoted gear is that closest to the picker roller 548 gear due to the bearing and gear mesh friction of each additional gear not being added to the bearing friction of the picker roller 548 this arrangement is illustrated in fig2 a and 26b where the pivot arm 562 connects the shaft of the closest gear 560 a and the adjacent compound gear 560 b the pivoted gear 560 a is configured to be brought back into engagement with the other gears by the driving torque of the picker.