Hi all, anyone have this problem? Is this something I can fix without sending the locomotive back?
Is it a wheel, two wheels and the axle, or the truck that fell off?
Simon
Good quality photo, pls.
I’ll take a couple photos. It’s a wheelset.
I put the wheelset back in aNd it seems to be working. However, I’d really like to know why it came out. Here are pictures of the Truck straight on and fro each side.
Is there excessive side play that allows it to move to one side far enough for the opposite side to drop out of the bearing? Or maybe it was already half out due to either not being installed correctly or being tossed in shipping?
–Randy
[Y]
Did it fall out while running?
Tell us the whole story.
Mike.
Once the wheels are in place, they should not fall out by gravity. If they do, I would check if the trucks are not warped. A blow might have bent them at some point. If they are bent, you might be able to gently bend them back to their original form.
Simon
Assuming you have a good inside caliper, or a good eye, carefully measure the distance between the inside faces of the truck frames at one end of the truck, then at the other. Obviously they should be the same. If they are not, see if you can tell why not.
Perhaps the easiest ‘retention’ fix is, with the wheelset in the truck, to put a tiny dab of nail polish or similar material (the ‘glyptal’ used to retain adjustable pots or other settings in radios comes to mind) in one or both of the little notches that optimize inserting the cone-ended wheelsets – it was through these that the wheelset probably came out, and ‘closing’ them with the wheelset in place will prevent that without in any way compromising either running or transporting the locomotive subsequently.
The reason to use nail-polish-like material is that, if you ever actually DO need to remove the wheelset – or return the locomotive for service for some other reason [:-,] – , it will pop off with gentle pressure.
I checked for side to side movement and it moves about the same as the other 11 tender wheels. I also used digital calipers to check the space between truck ends. The spacing was exactly the same on each wheel set / frame from side to side and font to back.
I First found the wheelset on the tracks when the mainline shorted. When I lifted the locomotive off the track (that cleared the short) I noticed the wheelset was still on the tracks.
Hopefully it was just an anomoly.
I’ve run it arround the layout both forward and backward, seems to be good.
Don’t know what I else to do at this point. Guess we’ll wait and see if it happens again.
tanks for the replies.
Check the truck for a crack. Happened to my BLI Pacific. It was stalling on some switches and I noticed a wheel set tucked up in the truck. When I pulled it back down I noticed the side of the truck had a crack but not yet completely in two. A gentle separation for some super glue, clamp, overnight rest and all is well.
Double check to ensure the plastic insulator, barely visible where one wheel’s hub meets the axle, is on the ‘correct’ side of the truck.
Probably best before you put it on powered rails. [^o)]
Ill check both for crack and insulator. Wouldn’t the insulator on the wrong side constantly short the district?
It certainly would – and might fry more besides. Best to be sure BEFORE the magic-smoke test… [:-^]
Insulator on correct side, no cracks. Locomotive running fine.
Guess we’ll never know what ent wrong.
Thank you for the replies and suggestions. This forum is always helpful.