Wheel Spacing and Turnouts.


N

Nightwing

Member
Well, my layout was running well until I reversed the direction of both trains. I had two cars that would derail at every turnout. I took the front truck off the worst car and gently rolled it thru a turnout. You could see that the wheels were stumbling over the frog because the inner wheel flange was hugging the guard rail but the opposite wheel was climbing the frog. I took some measurements of several cars and discovered the two troublesome cars had more wheel spacing than the trouble free cars. I rigged up a little press and narrowed the wheels up a slight amount. After two tries, I had the truck rolling freely thru the turnouts.

I run these trains about 5 hours a day while I am working on buildings, scenery, lighting and so forth. I never had a problem with those two cars until I reversed direction. Strange, but apparently, the direction of travel thru the turnout can bring out any flaws in your rolling stock.

I may upgrade all the wheels to metal.
 
Good detective work. One of the first tools I suggest people get is an wheel gauge tool. Out of gauge wheels are probably responsible for more derailments than any other issue. Even metal wheels can be out of gauge.

There is a rule of thumb when running a train at an exhibition or at a show. If a car is being a chronic derailer, just pick it up, flip it around and it will often resolve the problem long enough to finish the show.
 
Like Iron Horseman posted, the very first tool that I purchased many years ago was an NMRA gauge. Works on metal or plastic wheels. The second was a Kadee height gauge since I didn't like the one on the NMRA gauge. Soon after I got a "truck tuner".
Many modelers think that metal wheels are the answer to all of their woes. While I advocate metal wheels wholeheartedly, they are not always the answer. As IH pointed out, even they can be out of gauge, and they won't fix track issues, coupler height issues, shoddy trucks or underweight freight cars.

Willie
 
It does sound like the wheels may be out of gauge as mentioned above. They might be the original wheels. I started replacing all the wheels on my equipment over 30 years ago with metal wheel sets. At the time, Kadee replacement wheels were about the only ones readily available on the market, but now there are other company offering them. I buy Intermountain wheels in bulk packs. Metal wheels also roll a lot better than plastic wheels, but also don't pick up a lot of crud on the tracks as easy as plastic wheels.
 
Just as an aside. If you're working on scenery and structures DON'T wear out your engines and such just letting them go round in circles. This is especially true with the modern plastic steamers.
 
I do just the opposite Y3a. While I'm doing work on the layout, I do keep a train running. I really have more locomotives than I need and hate to have them just sitting around. Lubrication can harden. I keep everything lightly lubricated and rotate different locomotives that may have been sitting in my hidden staging tracks and not used for a long time. I only have a couple of plastic steamers, and they are thrown into the mix. I also have a few brass locomotives that are too large for my turntables and are usually stored in their box. I like to take these locomotives out of their box a few times a year, lightly lubricate them and let them run around the layout for a while.

Most of my diesels are nothing fancy. Most are the original Atlas Alco's that came out some time in the late 80's or early 90's. I will rotate these and let them run on a fairly regular basis. I find that they help keep the track clean. I am the only operator and may not get into the train room every weekend. Some times it can be two to three weeks before I have time to run trains.

Keeping the locomotives lightly lubricated and operating has not harmed them in any way. Even locomotives that I have had for over 30 years still fun like a Swiss watch.

My opinion.
 
I too run a train while at my work bench. I'll usually run a locomotive that been idle for a while to keep it fresh or take a new locomotive and run it to break it in.

BTW, in Walther's Showroom in Milwaukee, the staff has a large display layout and they usually have two trains running while the showroom is open for business. I've seen the same train and locomotives running a month later on my next visit to Walthers. No worst for the wear.

Greg

PS:

I have some commercial tapes of train and railroad yard switching sounds that I play when at the work bench. Keeps me in the mood.
 
While the first thing to check is the wheel/flange gauge, it happens that some turnouts don't conform to the NMRA standards very well. The running rails may be in gauge alright, but the guard spacing is incorrect. There is a distance between the backs of the flanges that must be right in order for the guards to do their jobs, but if everything else is within normal specs and the guards are too close together or too tight to their companion stock rails, you will have no end of problems. Once again, your few-bucks NMRA gauge allows you to determine which it is, the flange spacing or the flange path near the frog.

Get one!!
 
You can download train videos from YouTube, rip the audio from the video then apply it to a CD. Play the CD in a looping mode on a CD player.
 
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