At our club, one of the obstacle to running is frequent derails. A lot are caused by track, cars, and switches set the wrong direction. Right now everyone just puts their cars right and nothing gets fixed.
So I was thinking of proposing in our operrating rules (imagine me make thenm up[:-^]) that every time there is a derail, a report me filed that states, the car(s) that derailed, the section of track, and the direction of the turnout. Certainly this is the least that would happen in a prototype situation.
Hopefully, we will be able to triage the worst track problems and eliminate or fix bad rolling stock.
The biggest problem I foresee with this is club members telling you to stuff it, and continuing with their usual routine, so be prepared to get a lot of flack when you make your suggestion.
Nothing personal, because it was probably built before you joined, but if the club had good trackwork to begin with you wouldn’t have this problem. We can run multiple trains for hours on end and not have a single derailment on our 20 x 40 foot HO scale club layout except in cases like you mentioned of someone leaving a turnout set wrong.
When I first joined the club, you couldn’t run 10 feet without derailments – so we eventually garnered enough support among the members to tear the whole thing out, haul it all off to the landfill, and start from scratch. Sometimes that’s the only way to correct a poorly built layout.
If you keep having problems like that I think you should suggest that they take a look at their rolling stock( as a new club rule of course), nothing like a derailment to dampen your spirits. I have never run on a club layout before but if I have a prob at home I always check it out and make the necessary repairs. Good luck.
Sounds like it wouldn’t be much fun, but I suppose it might be neccesary.
Another thing you might try is sticky notes you leave at the location, or even just pins.
Trainboy
While good track work is important, it is amazing what a tune-up of the rolling stock will do. Once the cars are in good shape, you will be able to see where the bad track really is.
Track that appears bad is not always a problem. On a NTRAK module I built (retired long ago) a visible kink was only a problem to equipment with out of gauge wheels.
The fact that you live in Arizona means that you don’t have the same problems we do. We are in the basement of a church and as part of our extremely low rent agreement we are not allowed to leave anything turned on if we are not there. That includes our dehumidifier–humidity is our biggest problem.
That said, there is a lot to be fixed. And we just started on operations. While the club memebers might say “stuff it,” most of them have never operated before and there is general agreement that we should record problems. No one has stepped up with a plan however–so nothing gets done. Likewise, we don’t know the problems with cars.
We are trying to learn everything at once: dispatching, car cards, location names, and operating conventions. We need a set of rules and no one, until me, has stepped forward. Unfortunately, I’ve been been to two op sessions so I’m the grizzled veteran.
You might approach it as prototype practice, have the member do a diagnostic of the problem, track work, coupler, gauge of wheel sets, turnout throw the wrong way, and bad order the cars to a RIP track or put a sticky note in the track area to be addressed at a “work session”. Operator Idiot i.e. turnout thrown in the wrong direction could be a selection criteria for the “work crew” volunteers.
Good luck, enlist one or more of the “movers and shakers” assistance in selling a program to the rest of the membership.
Will
It is track, rolling stock and forgetful operators with turnouts.
All three need to be identified and dealt with.
Another source of derails is ignoring the dispatcher and running into a standing train. We are beyond greenhorns here–this is club of lifetime circle runners that want to try their had at operating. There will be a transition period.
The club VP is gung ho on operating and will back up any good idea. He carries more weight than anyone else in the club. He will sell it not me. I think if I present a unified plan, the derail reports will look just like anything else in the rules.
Sounds like a leadership issue to me, Chip. It’s lonely at the top, isn’t it…[;)]
Is this an informal group, or do you have any formal meetings with rules of order, etc? Unless your group has a strong leader who can crack the whip, you are peeing into a wind storm.
You need post-op debriefing (gad…I’m sounding like a military officer…[:D]) sessions where everyone is invited to tell it like they saw it. Then, the leader has to summarize, note trends, and then get THEM to come up with a solution, and get THEM to pick a team to put it right, complete with deliverable dates.
If you don’t already have one, a test track would be a good idea - there have been various designs in different magazines, most recently in MR. Basically a board, a few rerailers, and a couple of Kadee gauges. Plus a postage-type scale. Mark off increments on the board in recommended weights (so no one has to do any math!). Also tie on an NMRA gauage to check the wheels. Tie it on good so it doesn’t walk away. Any car goign on the layout needs to pass the tests - wheel gauge, coupler height, trip pin height, and weight, at a minimum.
Once ont he layout - if a car derails or a piece falls off, it goes in a box with a note and gets sent to the bench. Always remember the note - if the car sits on the bench for a week or two, good luck remember what the problem was, even if it seems obvious like a truck fell off. If multiple cars derail at the same spot, flag the track with a post-it for followup.
Eventually everyone will fall in line, especially if the officers of the club pu***he idea. And then you will need situation cards to make up derailments as an interest adder for the op session.
Try the Huckelberry Finn approach. Next session, show up with a clipboard with some forms on it. You can probably get a half-dozen “derailment reports” on a page. Whenever there’s a derailment, walk over and log the information yourself. Pretty soon, they’ll be begging you to let them do it.
Make the reports simple so they only take a moment to fill out, and don’t interfere with the session. Figure out some method for describing the location, and use checkboxes for the frequent causes, but be sure there’s a space for “other.” (“Waldo left his beer mug on the tracks.”) Next session, tally the data and provide a report.
Watch them fall in line. There will be a few holdouts, but your summary report will be the first thing people look at when the next work session comes about.
at my club when there is repeated derailments at the same spot the equipment derailed is removed from operation. if a track defect is found it is marked by the use of red push pins to warn operators of the location of the defect. we are trying to get all the members to agree to have one meeting night a month for maintenance and cleaning track. i haven’t been able to determine if that is in the bylaws. most of the derailments are with steam engines with at least 8 drivers and mostly on uneven track. we don’t have organized operating sessions as the club is very informal type. sort of a run what you want when you want. when i was with nycta they had a derailment commitiee that met after derailments to determine the cause and place blame. hosted by a different dept each time. it might be hard though to get your members to stop operating long enough to talk about it.
I agree with every else is statements. I would do the same thing my case is the
turnouts being wrong and I also have problems with my wheels i converted
a few of my rolling stock to metal wheels and 2 of them like to jump the track
but lucky for me they rerail themselfs.