Derailments seldom happen on my layout and when they do it is usually the falt of the switch thrower.[:-^]
However this morning I had a multi car derailment. It took safety investigators a considerable amount of time to track down the cause. After an exhaustive investigation using the most modern Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass my kid owns, it turned out a ladder had fallen off a Great Northern 40’ boxcar onto the tracks triggering the accident.
Great Northern maintenance practices are now under investigation.[|(]
I have a Bachmann FT DCC loco that would go through a switch fine forward but would derail when I backed it through it, derailing the rest of some of the cars with it. I could not find the cause of why only backing up was a problem.
Finally after following it carefully for the nth time I realized that the step ladder rungs hanging down below the skirting were just ever so slightly hanging up, but only when it backed through the switch. It seems maybe that going forward it could “drag” those step rungs over it fine or not hang up, but could not back up!
I have avoided backing since then, but I think since those step rungs are rather fat and non-scale prototype, that I will file those off, and replace with wire ones that will not hang up, be more realistic,and look better.
The most puzzling accidents are those that only happen when someone is over to ‘see the trains.’ I can run everything all day long without incident - but the minute someone enters the basement, the gremlins creep in.
Puzzling?? Rails out of gauge on a curve 6’ from where the loco derailed all the time.(made it look like a turnout was at fault) Drove me CRAZY!!!
Less puzzling…A Japanese beatle landing on the track right in front of a fast moving mixed freight acting as a ramp sending half the train off into the valley below.(AKA floor…)
That is the key phrase. I think it has something to do with the added weight of the person or persons deflecting the floor enough to tweak the layout that scews the track that causes the derailments. Another theory is the added pressure from the exhalations of the visitors causing a pressure differential enough to derail cars. Like a great side wind pushing the train sideways enough for a flange to pick a switch.
Perhaps we can apply for some government grants to study the visitor/derailment phenomena. I’m thinking somewhere around 30 million dollars should be enough. That would be a bargain compared to other studies we pay for.
On my old UP layout I had a brass Big Boy pulling a long load of reefers about 70 or so cars if memory serves me correct. I had a couple of friends coming over that weekend to see the railroad and was attempting to impress the heck out of em when they first came down into the basement by seeing this beautiful locomotive pulling an impressive train. I set the thing up on a Thursday night and had it running flawlessly around the layout. Checked i again when I got home on Friday night and still everything was perfect. Saturday am rolls around and my friends show up with a couple of other guys from their club. So I fire up the old Big Boy and it makes it maybe a 1/4 of the way around the layout and derailment city what a mess, the back half of the train at lest 45 or 50 cars were all over the place. Well now we have 6 of us trying to figure out what the heck went wrong and me telling them I swear it was working perfectly and I’m getting oh sure it was, what ever you say buddy, Royal chop busting to the tenth degree. Well after about an hour and a half of looking, seems one of the cars that didn’t derail had dropped a truck screw and it logged in a turnout and of course it being black because I have to paint everything it blended in with the ballast almost perfectly. To this day I still hear about it. What else are friends for
Oh boy, we had a great one a few years ago on my old layout.
This poor guy brought over his custom done SP articulated tank train 30 or so cars I think and we’re running 5 or 6 trains in follow the leader fashion. Well the conversation picks up, and unbeknowst to most people, the fellow had stopped his train way up high on the mountain to take photographs with all the trees and scenery which happened to be the tightest curve on the layout.
Well along comes an Amtrak Superliner train with two heavy locos on the front enters the tunnel, the guy wasn’t really paying attention either, and BAM!
The tank train comes flying out the tunnel shoving the rest of the cars in all directions since it was on a curve. Cars were in trees. Cars were on the levels below. I think even some made it to the floor. Worst one I’ve had on my layout to be sure!
Lemme see if I can find a picture of that section of the layout to better visualize the carnage…
I know he got some photos, but not with my camera.
2 car DMU train (KiHa17 class cab cars back to back) ascending a 2% grade on tangent track suddenly lurched, stopped and overload light came on.
Investigation revealed that a nickel silver wheel had come adrift from the fiber hub and shifted inward enough to take the tread completely off the rail. In the process it shorted track power to the brass gear box - hence the overload light and sudden stop. Of course, it would be the one wheel on the entire train that could short to the gearbox! All of the other wheels (three more on the power truck, twelve on the three non-powered trucks, 48 on other KiHa17 series cars, powered and trailer) were inspected. None were defective.
Repair involved forcing the wheel back onto its hub, cleanng the area thoroughly and attaching the two halves of a thin plastic washer to the hub and wheel with CA liquid cement. That unit has since given almost four years of trouble-free service.
A while ago shortly after I got hold of my 1st DCC locomotive I had been experimenting with momentum control. I ran the locomotive down a siding and got about 2 feet from the end where I closed the throttle expecting the thing to slow and stop. Well it just kept on going right off the end of the table. Fortunately it didn’t fall all the way to the floor.