Pesky Car Keeps Derailing....?


Greg@mnrr

Greg@mnrr

Section Hand
Ever have a car that no matter what you check the car will still will derail from time to time? I have two CenterLine track cleaning cars that I run as a track cleaning train. The one car will derail for no apparent reason on do it usually on curves. I checked the wheel gauges, coupler height and tightness of the trucks on both cars and still have the problem. The cleaning rollers are okay. It happens pulling or pushing. Running alone there's no problems. Coupled together the one car sidereal!!!

I will try running the cars with another piece of rolling stock coupled between them and see what happens. I've run numerous other cars through the spots where I have derailments and they work perfectly. The ore trains, which will find any bad track, run with no problems either.

???

Greg
 
You didn't mention what kind of couplers are on the car and how are they mounted.
On a curve, the rail car will tend to lean a little bit into the curve. Check your truck motion for obstructions while tilted a little bit.
If that doesn't resolve anything, go to plan B. Start with a small hammer and work up to the larger one that takes two hands to swing.
 
FWIW, I had a brand new, out of box covered hopper, from a high quality importer, that drove me nuts over derailments. found the truck itself was warped, and that was causing the derailments. Don't know if yours is a similar problem, but it doesn't hurt to look.

Boris
 
Ken: The couplers are #5 Kadees and body mounted. I'll check for obstructions when the truck is tilted a bit.

Thanks.

Greg
 
Remove the trucks and see if they are warped. Seen that more than once, both on plastic and brass trucks. A good set of Kaydee or Central Valley trucks fixes that problem nicely.
 
Greg - Just saw this thread this morning. In addition to all of the above suggestions, check to see if all wheels are centered correctly on the axles. They can be in gauge but off to one side or the other.
 
Willie and Malletman: The trucks are Kadees with springs and I'll check the wheel sets to make sure they are centered in their axles properly.

Thanks.

Greg

PS: Ran the cars on the main line cleaning track for a hour without any problems.
 
Ever have a car that no matter what you check the car will still will derail from time to time? I have two CenterLine track cleaning cars that I run as a track cleaning train. The one car will derail for no apparent reason on do it usually on curve
Click to expand...

The trucks are Kadees with springs...
Click to expand...

I think you have 2 problems,....its a track cleaning car that may have some weight/unweight problems in certain situations,....and sprung trucks on a track cleaning car, what for??
 
Beiland: The track cleaning cars are from CenterLine and are perhaps 14 or 15 years old. They are heavy cast metal and have the center rollers that have a user installed pad wrapped around the roller. They are very heavy cars.

The CenterLine cars are high quality and the Kadee spring trucks just added to their approach to producing a quality car. They also came equipped with #5 Kadee couplers. They are the original car that were painted black.

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I think that the problem maybe that I been coupling the two together and as Y3a suggested just push one and pull the other.

Keep everyone posted.

Greg
 
Friend of mine had a similar problem,found that one wheel set had slightly larger wheel flange that would cause it to derail.Try different set of wheels and run a truck tuner to clean out any burs.
 
The centerline cars rollers don't actually roll square to the track, they are angled slightly to give a bit of a buffing action.
Try turning one around it might offset the pulling to one side of the other?
Another idea might be to use a drawbar between them if they are always run together.
 
Loose the sprung trucks as they warp a little because of the slop in the moving parts.
 
I found a slight, a very slight misalignment of one rail on a curve where problems were occurring. Did some filing and correction and now we'll see what happens when I push two CenterLine Cars around that curve.

Again, only these cars had a problem and all others ran just fine throught this and other areas.

I'll also check on what Y3a, Rico and Tom suggested for correcting the problem.

Thanks everyone.

Greg
 
Greg@mnrr said:
I found a slight, a very slight misalignment of one rail on a curve where problems were occurring. Did some filing and correction and now we'll see what happens when I push two CenterLine Cars around that curve.

Again, only these cars had a problem and all others ran just fine throught this and other areas.

I'll also check on what Y3a, Rico and Tom suggested for correcting the problem.

Thanks everyone.

Greg
Click to expand...
A small disturbance in the track, when the majority of the rolling stock & power handles it fine is NOT a track problem... it's a CAR problem.
 
After checking into all possibilities and the suggestions that the fellow Forum members offered, here's what may happen.

I believe I may have found what points to what is the cause of the derailments with the CenterLine cars. The brass roller(s) have a strip of Handy-Wipe cut to fit over the roller(s) to hold the track cleaning solution. I believe that when the the Handy-Wipe material is attached around the roller, there's an cut end of the material that can slightly stick out. I use a few drops of AC to secure the wrapped Handy-Wipe, but the cut ends remain some what loose.

The roller(s) can move around within the opening of the frame. The protruding edge (loose edge) of the Handy-Wipe may under the idea conditions catch on the front or rear inner frame edge of the car causing the car to lift ever so slightly and a derailment results usually on a curve.

This is an unusual occurrence and conditions need to be just right for this to happen.


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This is just a possibility that I will research into farther.

Greg
 
Willie: Agree, but where will be a problem is when cleaning tracks located in dead end spurs, yards, etc. and the train needs to back up. As an example, the Saxeville Interchange is a system of six tracks , very long tracks, that dead end.

Guess...I'll use additional AC to tighten up the loose ends on the roller wrap to cure the problem. Then I'll do some testing.

Thanks, Willie.

Greg
 
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I did find a possible cause of the derailing that I saw on a video of actual railroad where coupling cars with extended shank couplers have problems coupling on a slight curve. The loco I was using and experienced the derailments had extended shank Kadee couplers. I should perhaps try a different locomotive with standard couplers.

Just a thought.

Greg
 
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