I am using code 83 n scale track and atlas turnouts number 4,s and am having a problem with just my Pa-1,s and Pb-1,s at the switch it will derail while going into the switch not coming out of it. The switch is in position and not moving at the switch point I have watched with my optivisor and at creeping speed, all of my con cors and katos do this just my pa’s and pb’s nithing else any ideas?
Assuming the gauges are very close to optimal in both all the axles and the distance between the stock rail for the route lined and its opposite point, I would suspect a problem on the approach to the points, maybe as much as two or three inches back along the ingress.
I found early that when things all check out at the turnout, suspect a dip or a yaw in the track, perhaps a slight bump vertically, that causes the whole frame to rotate enough in one or more axes to lighten the axle load on the side where the derailment occurs.
The first thing to do, besides carefully gauging every part of the problem area and the axles, is to take a straight edge, lay it on the tracks with its long axis parallel to the rail axis at that location, place a back-light behind it, and then get down with your eyes to the track top levels and look for an obvious gap where the light is shining through.
Another possibility could be the trip pin. They have been known to foul near the frog and cause either a jam/stall or a derailment. Means the coupler height or the pin’s curvature are defective.
The last possibility that comes to mind readily for me is that the radius of the points rails, and that combined with the frog angle, is too much for the design of the engine. You may have to resort to a #4.5, for example, or even a true #5.
If the engine is derailing at the frog, perhaps the guard rails are not gauged properly. They aren’t doing their jobs.
-Crandell
You have checked turnout and engines with an NMRA gauge?
Wolfgang
Take a close look at the track approaching the turnout. Is it a straight section, or a curve? Very often, if you have a curved piece of flex track right before a turnout, the tracks don’t meet on an nice, smooth tangent. Instead, there is a distinct sharp angle at the rail joiner. This is one of those situations where the cheap trains with large-flange, “pizza-cutter” wheels will make it over the kink just fine, while the higher quality engines with more prototypical wheel profiles will have a problem.
Viperi
PAs are very picky about their track. Just a little vertical mismatch on the rail joint entering a curve will kick the three axle truck off. I have also had a problem with the frogs being higher than the rails on code 100 Atlas turn outs which derails the PAs.
I slide a steel block along the track to detect mismatched rail joiners. I second the steel ruler and light. Good luck. [:D]
Lee
yep;Im with mr. B . had the same or similer problem in ho w/ atlas #6 and a short pc of 24" radius curve and a pair a p2k E units in a AA setup the E unit in the rev direction would climb the point untill I stuck a 11/2 " pc of strait between the curve and the entrence to the #6 turn out w/ points set for the turning route…hard to see, but I checked everything w/ gauge to no aval,no problems since…Jerry
It may be possible that the wheels are in gauge but off center:
This can make the flanges “pick” the points of a turnout.
great example Phil, picts always make a differance…Jerry