Hi all, I am just getting back into ho railroading…Am building a 4x7 layout and having trouble with the above mentioned switch…It causes my rolling stock to constantly de-rail when going straight thru,NOT when the switch is thrown however causing train to go right…Any ideas or just a bad switch??? Thanks in advance for any help…[;)]
Is this the one with the pre-molded roadbed attached?
The points on these turnouts are extremely short, and may cause longer wheelbase rolling stock to react badly.
Generally, though, when a turnout (what we call “switches” in model railroading, to avoid confusion with the gadgets that we use to control the flow of electricity) is giving trouble in the “through” (that is, straight ahead) position, check a couple of things: make sure the moveable rail is sitting flush against the fixed one; make sure there is nothing (ballast, glue, and plastic flash are common culprits) fouling the inside of the rails, the frog (the little part where the divergent rails intersect) or the guide rails; and make sure that the points are in the same horizontal plane as the fixed rails. A little work with a fine pointed file will usually solve any issues here.
Also, if you have Kadee compatible couplers with hanging trip pins, make sure that they’re not hanging too low and catching on the rails or frog as your train transits the turnout.
Finally, get a flashlight and get your eye right down on the track level and see if you can spot EXACTLY what part of the train leaves the rails and EXACTLY where it does. That may help solve the problem.
I have tinker, bent, filed, pushed, pulled, and swore up a storm on bachmann switches. Seems to be too much slop in the moveable rails. No matter what i did something always derailed. And if i got it right one way it would derail the other. Gave up and sold all the bachmann track except enough straight and curve to go around the tv in the basement for test runs with rolling stock. Save yourself the headache and go kato or lay your own bed and use atlas or some other snap switch. Just my 2.cents on the subject.
I bought a few Bachmann #5 turnouts, and have had spotty performance from them. The electrical switch machines seem to give very erratic operation, sometimes moving the point against the intended stock rail, sometimes not, with my having to manually complete the movement. Had this problem with both the Nickle Silver (Grey) and Steel (black) track. Even when I was in high scholl, I had better reliability from my own hand-laid trunouts. When I get to building my next pike, I’ll be using mostly Atlas Custom Line #6, and some of the older Brass Shinohara specialty turnouts I have.
Thanks to all who responded…[:D] I agree with them all…I will never use them again and will take the advice given as to the alternatives…Funny, the life like switches all work fine,its only the bachmann that are screwed up…[:(!] Thanks again all and “keep the wheels spinning”…[;)]
One thing I have learned from using Bachmann remote switches is that they must be absolutely level in order to work correctly.
One a few occasions when I thought the switch should have been level it was in fact not. a small adjustment was all it took to properly level the switch, the adjustment was hardly noticable, however it did the trick.
Always have a level handy when using Bachmann switches.
Thanks don7, I used a level and it shows that the switch is level…I used a pliers to lightly squeeze the frog rail to the immoveable rail to make it flush and it appears to have worked…All the rolling stock now goes through w/o derailing…Thanks to all for the good advice,John[tup]