I have two brass articulated engines, one a small old 2-6-6-2 and one a Westside Imports SP cab-forward of later vintage. With both engines the fixed drivers track fine but the articulated set walks off the tracks too frequently for the engine to operate successfully. Anybody know a solution to this problem?
Set your locomotive on a hard, flat surface and check to see if all of your drivers are completely flat. I had a similar problem with a BLI Blueline “Big Boy”. The problem turned out to be the weight balance of the locomotive causing the front end of the articulated drivers to lift slightly. You’ll have to experiment to see what the best solution is for your loco.
I hate to ask the obvious…but where do they stray? and what radius curves are you using? Do they walk off on the straight-a-way too?
If something is bent out of shape…even ever so slightly your eye might not catch it…that could be your problem.
If the curves are the issue, then you need wider curves. Articulateds need larger curves to negotiate successfully.
Are the wheel sets in guage? If out of guage, that could be a problem…
just some ideas
[8-|]
One way to catch a problem if it isn’t obvious is to get out the video camera. Try to get shots of the derailing and then watch it in slow motion frame by frame on the big screen. You may be surprised by what you see, including things you weren’t even looking for.[:O]
Brent[C):-)]
It sounds as if you need a little more ‘downward’ tension on the free-swinging articulated driver set. Most brass articulateds–at least the ones I have (and that’s a big roundhouse full, believe me), have a spring-loaded connection of some sort that extends up from the swinging driver set to a flat spot on the bottom of the boiler, which gives added tension to the drivers. If so, it could be that the spring itself needs either more tension in it, or is worn out and needs to be replaced.
And make sure that the swiveling brass piping that leads from the bottom of the boiler to the front set of cylinders is moving freely and not catching up in the ‘slot’ that it’s supposed to move in. Some LaBelle gear grease will usually cure that, just put a dab or two on the bottom boiler ‘slot’ then swivel the front set of drivers a little until they swivel smoothly.
I don’t know what your minimum radius is, but with all but the smallest of brass articulateds, you’re going to run into problems with anything less than a 24" radius (my recommendation for most medium to large brass articulateds is 28" absolute minimum).
Hope this helps.
Tom
After first wondering if a locomotive is the problem, especially when it’s a new one, and I invariably have troubles keeping it on my tracks at one spot, sometimes more, I turn to the track. Every time, when I slowly watch the loco creep up to, and onto, the bad patch, I eventually see the problem. It is almost always a slight gauge pinch or rail height mismatch. Even on superelevated curves, there can be a sufficient disparity in rail heights tranversely over even a couple or three inches that your rear fixed driver set, essentially part of the rigid frame above it, does one thing, but the front engine is free to read its own footprint below it in its own way. If the frame rearward of the front driver set is going one way in pitch and yaw, but the rails up front make the front engine do something different, you often get a conflict.
I first encountered this late my first year of modelling. I had run a BLI Hudson and a tiny P2K Heritage 0-6-0 without problems on my EZ-Track. I then ordered a Lionel Challenger. It ran fine everywhere on my 22" curves, but it derailed almost consistently as it went across the frog of a long EZ-Track turnout, essentially a #5-and-a-bit. After many trials backing and moving it forwards, I realized the rear fixed engine was horsing the front half of the frame in such a way that the first set of drivers lifted wide on the curve past the frog, along the points rails. I forget now what I did to correct the problem, but it involved the turnout, not the Challenger. When I stablized the turnout and made its rail heights come very close to matching a plane in space, the Challenger zipped through that turnout like nobody’s business, and at speed.
Things change over time. I suspect your tracks there need some fine(r) tuning. I could be wrong…
Crandell
Thanks for all the comebacks, guys. My curve radaii are just about at the 28" threshold and I have tried running these engines on my home layout where the track quality is fair and on my club layout where the track quality is poor. That being said, my other two articulateds, a Katsumi SP AC-9 and an Akani AC-12 cab forward operate with no trouble on boh layouts. The little 2-6-6-2 came to me in pieces and is a rebuild. It’s so old I don’t even recognize the brand name ( New Models ). The AC-6 is top-of-the-line brass from the 1980’s and both have the identical issues, They derail on curves, straightaways and on switch frogs, not in just one place but all over the mainline. I very much appreciate all your suggestions. I think I’ll start with the lubrication idea first and then think about adding weight and springs. If I have any success, I’ll post it by and by.
Jim:
I just thought of something else–are you using plain rubber tubing to connect the driver shafts from one set of drivers to the other, or are you using Universals? Plain rubber tubing is not very flexible–it can not only cause the front set of drivers to derail, but it’s actually kind of hard on the motor after a while. If my articulateds haven’t come from the factory with Universals, I replace the rubber tubing with Universals from NWSL–the ball and socket sliding kind. I had to do that on all of my Akanes, and it improved their running immensely. Especially on tighter radius curves.
Tom