AF front truck leaves track

I have a 302 Amer Flyer from my in-laws. We ran it this Christmas and it does run, not to badly;but, it does a few trips around a 4x6 ft oval then the front truck leaves the track. I do not know a lot about model trains but it seems there is not much pressure on the front truck to stay inside the rails though the loco sits level. Any ideas as to why? .

Just a couple of questions:

  1. Was the track set up on carpet? It may not have been completely flat, which allowed the truck to “walk over” the rail.
  2. Did it derail at the same spot every time? If not, check step 1.

I’d try posting your same question on the Classic Toy Trains forum part of this website, where many more folks familiar with trouble shooting old American Flyer trains are likely to be hanging out.

Dave Nelson

Not familiar w/ American Flier, and as Dave suggests if we can’t help here the other Forum should be helpful. However, ther shouldn’t be that much difference between HO and S scale for the trouble w/ the front truck. Most of these I believe are gravity “drop” and have no spring pressure. As mentioned, if there is any irregularity of the level of the trackwork this can cause the derailment. Amer Flier as well as Lionel usually will run on almost anything. If it is not a serious trackwork problem, then I would check that the truck has free movement and hasn’t been distorted in any way (packing away damage). If all else fails, try weighting the truck or adding a light spring.

[#welcome]

A few thoughts.

Make sure that the track was joined properly. AF with deep flanges is very forgiving, but misjoined pieces of track will cause problems.

Check the track ends. AF track is tubular and the ends can get flared out and catch at the wheels.

How fast were you running the engine. While the deep flanges will let you run fast around the curves, too much speed will cause it to go off the rails.

Good luck

Paul

I’ll try with a spring since it seems it just wants to float and not really guide. Granted the track is original and so old but it looks in good shape and I’ll check it over. Thanks