I’ve just recently completed my HO scale layout. The layout is on a 5x9 sheet of plywood and the track is all Bachmann EZ Track. My layout has 2 mainlines that are connected by 2 crossover tracks and 1 “side track” that I use to hold a 3rd engine on. The sidetrack goes through the middle of the layout and is connected to the inner mainline by 2 turnouts (the turnouts that are made with the 18" radius curve for the switch track). My outer mainlines are made of 22" radius curves and straight tracks and the side track is made of 18" radius curves and straight tracks.
The 3 engines that I run on the tracks are a Bachmann 2-8-4 Berkshire, a Kato SD40-2, and an Athern Heritage AC4400 (<---- I think that’s the right name for it). The Berkshire carries 5 ACL passenger cars, the SD40-2 carries 7 log cars made by Rivarossi and Bachmann log cars, and the AC4400 carries 5 Con-Cor passenger cars.
Now that you have a small idea of what my layout looks like and the engines that I run on them, let me present you with my problem: Derailment.
I have no problems running any of my trains on the regular curves and straight pieces of my layout. My diesel engines handle the crossovers and turnouts with ease. The Berkshire handles the crossovers with ease. The problem comes with the cars and with the Berkshire on the turnouts.
The Berkshire can’t cross the lefthand turnout without the leading 2 wheels going off towards the second track. It happens about 8/10 times. The cars following all of my engines will do the same thing: the front wheels will go straight and the back wheels will jump on to the other piece of track as if the switch was thrown. All of my switches are connected electronically.
I don’t want to change over to a different type of track simply because I have spent well over $500 on the track and accessories that I have now. Does anyone have a solution to this problem? Does anyone else have this problem? Please let me kn
FIRST, try all of your engines alone and without cars. Forwards and backwards trough all of the trouble spots. do any of them derail?
Now try your passenger cars. couple two of them together without a locomotive and run them through all trouble spots. Do any of them derail.
LION SUSPECTS that it is the couplers that are giving you the problems.The coupler on the locomotive is body mounted, is it not? Are the couplers on the passenger cars body mounted or truck mounted. If you are connecting a body mounted coupler to a truck mounted coupler you will likely have troubles. Maybe you need to replace the coupler on the car that connects to the locomotive. Make that one body mounted and leave the rest as they were. Use a shorter baggage car or something for this!
NEXT look at where the kingpin is in relation to the truck and to the end of the car. Some king pins are centered in their trucks and others are towards one end. THAT is cheating done to make things work on 18" radius track, which you are using, but may still fight with the engine. The closer the truck is mounted towards the ends of the cars, the less overhang there is between the cars. (But their is greater belly overhang in the middle of your cars on the inside curves.) New York City subway cars are a study in how truck placements are critical in operations through tunnels.
FINALLY examine the operation of the locomotive and the problem cars, get down there and put your nose on the ballast and watch were it come off the rail. Do it again and again observing where thretches and the buffs are occurring.
I have not used HO Bachmann E-Z Track, but my first question is, have you checked the turnout and wheels with an NMRA guage? Second thing I would look at (just did for a friend of mine in N) is if the point rail is closing so that the inside of the rail is smooth. There could be two problems there: incomplete closure due to something stuck in the track or the point rail needs to be filed slightly to make the connection smooth.
Wow. This is a lot to comprehend. Thanks a lot for your input. I will be going home today and trying all of this out. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to you tomorrow about this.
There is one minor, but significant, issue with E-Z Track. As I discovered when I used some for a temporary tramway, the joints have to be forced all the way together until they click. Failing to do this can result in a tiny offset of the railheads. Then, if the design of the rolling stock forces the flange against that inwardly-offset railhead it WILL climb up on top and over the rail. The tighter you are squeezing the minimum radius of the loco or car, the more likely this is to happen.
I don’t suggest scrapping the layout you have. I do suggest that you build future layouts with track that aligns the railheads with rail joiners, not hooks in the plastic roadbed.
As a partial, possible fix, batter the rail ends by filing a small facet in the inside upper corner, just a single swipe of a file, to blunt that sharp flange-grabber. Don’t remove much metal. A few thousandths measured crossways and about 2mm (tapered) measured along the rail is plenty.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on flex with hand-laid specialwork)
I think the better solution would be the E-Z track crossover since the E-Z #6 look more like a size 8 IMHO since its a long looking switch…I could be wrong though judging by photos of the EZ #6…
Examine the points on the turnouts I bet that they need a bit of filing on outside edges of the frog and the stock rail. Check out part 8 of MR’s Virginian series video. David Popp shows how to do this. I filed all my bman turnouts they all work great now.
Thanks so much for the suggestions!!! I went through and found that one of my turnouts wasn’t staying tight to the tracks when the trains/cars passed over it. I swapped both of my turnouts for a couple of bigger turnouts and got amazing results.
I’m going to stick with this layout for now. Here’s a little peak at what I’m working with…
I got to watch your video late last night. It is good to see proof that I can run some longer passenger cars on my layout with 18 inch curves. One caution I have though you said that running non DCC equiptment caused a loud noise. This is true but leaving it idle will also cause overheating if left on long. Good video hope to see more when you have more scenery done.
I have some Bachmann EZ track with a few switches, and my Bachmann K4 was having similar problems going through the turnouts at speed. Filing down the points on the turnouts should resolve all your issues, and will provide more reliable operation.
Thanks a lot for your input. I will be going home today and trying all of this out. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to you tomorrow about this.