I have one 5 car set of Maxi III well cars from Athearn’s RTR line that keep derailing everytime one of the middle or end cars come through a turnout (I have KATO Unitrack). I have another RTR set that runs fine and an older blue box set that also run fine. It’s just this one set that causes trouble. I thought that the coupler “hoses” were causing this so I chopped a bit off each one on the “A” and “B” cars–but I am still having the same trouble. I have watched the cars come through but there seems to be no particular reason. Has anyone else experienced this trouble?
I model N and I have had the same problem with empty MDC Huskies, as they are lite they skid over my medium points when switching… so now they are always loaded…
Mike…
Check the wheelset back to back measurements on the trucks that are derailing - I bought an Athearn RTR caboose and found that the wheels supplied are set to too wide a gauge, resulting in occasional derailments.
Check that the wheelsets are in gauge. You also might check to see if the trucks swivle smoothly.
Nick
Not only swivel, but allow a small amount of rocking side to side and front to back. Some of the articulated cars are much too rigid on these axis and cause trouble if there’s just the slightest track defect.
Wheelset gauge and squareness on the axle is a good place to start on any derailment problem. Also, check the switch gauge, flangeways, and look for obstructions (chunk of ballast in the frog, etc) To check squareness of the wheel on axle, spin the wheelset and look for any wobble of the wheel as it spins. Not common any more but it does happen.
Also, check your car weight. I added weight to my non articulated Athearn double stacks to bring them up to the NMRA RP20.1
It might be the drawbars being too tight. If there is a bump at each switch, it might derail that way.
Matthew