Our heavy, big flanged trains are not supposed to derail; but derail they do on all but about 2% of layouts, whose owners claim to never have had a derailment.
What causes derailments?
A cornfield meet certainly could. A runaway locomotive on a sharp curve; stringlining; picking a switch; striking an object on the tracks; nasty S curves; and the list goes on.
Are you one of the 2% who’ve never had a derailment. If you are, please share your secret.
If you are the 98% who does, what causes them? I can tell you that in the past, running trains too big for 027 curves and switches has been the main culprit for me. That’s one reason I’m going min. 072.
I only have derailments on a 027 turnout, which is followed by another 027 turn the other way. It is caused by a limited swing of some couplers or a too high speed crossing the switch. Of the 3 locomotives I own, 2 are with magnetraction and the third has a 400gram extra weight in it, so they don’t derail (unless the track ends…)
Knock on wood, currently derailments on my railroad are due to operator error, .[] something the engineers’ union would not like to hear.
I sometimes forget to close/open a switch and one of the lighter cars in the consist doesn’t have enough weight to open the points causing a derail. My second is having a heavy car toward the end of the consist stringlining a lighter car off the rails.
Personally, I don’t think that operator error should count as a derailment, those are ACCIDENTS. Derailments should only be counted when the train leaves the track for an unknown reason that is mechanical in nature. Bad track or switches count, bad track alignment counts, bad wheels or couplers count, things like that.
The secret is to identify the problem and fix it. Unfortunately, there will always be accidents.[#oops][swg]
If only someone could write down the steps to achieving perfect trackwork.
I learned the hard way that you need to put a straight edge up to the rails if you really want your straights to be straight & not zig-zags. The other trick is the roadbed preparation (I still don’t have that figured out). If the road bed ain’t flat, your track isn’t goign to be flat & that can lead to derailments.
I know there’s a problem with the spacing on the pilot wheels on my Lionel 2-8-0 Consolidation that lead it to derail when going in a specific direction through my 022 switches. Spreading the wheels apart is supposed to fix the problem. I have to get around to doing this.
Getting the straights straight seems to be even more important when there’s a switch in the track run. Especially if they’re 022 switches. Don’t know about any other type of switch, yet.
There are probably other factors, like ballasting, that I haven’t gotten to work on yet.
I can think of 6 causes for derailment on my floor layouts
1.Track joints working apart
2.High speeds on tight curves
3.Stringlining
4.Backing up with truck-mounted couplers
5.Equipment catching on something
6.Equipment malfunction
#1 is probably the most frequent cause. I generally run on O72 curves with fairly heavy loads, so #2 isn’t so much of a problem. I do like running long trains, so #3 happens far more often than I would like. #4 usually only happens when you have poorly mounted trucks and long trains, both of which I often have. #5 really only happens with me when a pickup roller catches on one of my O22 switches. #6 is a fairly frequent cause, as I often have couplers open, and the engine smacks into the caboose before I have time to shut off power.
Actually this past year had been one of my smoothest as far as running and derailments go. I went 100%. I even was using Lionel O72 switches which have given me grief in the past. I was pleasently surprised.
Biggest single cause of derailments on the MVR is cars that are not properly weighted. Weight all cars to about 1.5 pounds minimum. Then everything seems to work much better.
I do have two cars (an MTH caboose and a Weavrer box car) that for some inexplicable reason seem to ride real rough. I cannot see anything wrong with the trucks but these two cars will come off the rails almost spontaneiously. They cannot make it through an Atlas cross over without derailing. They are both now relagated to the ‘bad order’ track awaiting truck replacment. Which is odd since the Weaver car started out as a two rail car and I replaced its trucks with diecast Weavers.
I suspect that the problem is in the loosness of the bolt attaching the truck to the car body; both seem to wobble around a lot.
Sometimes I find that some track screws are too tight , shifting the rails a bit. Loosening the screw especialy on curves helps some of my problem cars stay on track.
] something the engineers’ union would not like to hear.