Well after the unproductive Friday - early Monday, my father and I decided to go down to the basement (trying to clear off the layout of junk to get working again). Anyhow as dad decided to run his steam locomotive with his open end observation Milw Road passagner car he ran into a bit of trouble on 2 curves. After removing the spray booth I had bought 4 months ago never to be used as of yet, I climbed up on the unfinished prtion of the layout to find out what was a matter. WEll of course the curve’s are to tight. Well after ripping up a portion and finding out that its curable after 4 tries I decided I am leaving the layout for a night to figure out how to do this. The thing I hate about this, is I have scenery done in this certain area the track needs to be ripped up and the roadbed has to move also. Then I have to cut track and add like 2 inches to make it useable. The last thing is every other car we have passanger and freight runs on these curves without a problem, its just the 6 axle of this car. So I have to redo it all because of that car. Oh well live and learn.
So who else had to do this and whats the easiest way to save scenery material , mostly grass?
First, are you sure there is nothing much easier and quicker to be done with the trucks on that car? Some folks have taken to scraping away at plastic, in a hidden spot, to allow the trucks another two or three degrees of “freedom”. Also, the wheels are in the right spots on their axles…right? You have sighted from one wheel on one axle to the same wheel on the other axles, and they all line up when pressed hard into their truck bearings? Also, their gauge is correct? Finally, the metal “hoses” that dangle below the couplers are all at the right height and orientation, and not snagging on something or each other? If those are not the issues,…
…take a deep breath, grit your teeth, and scrape away the new arc so that your roadbed and tracks maintain their level path. Before you do anything else, prove the new arrangement backwards and forwards with the troublesome cars. Once you know it will work, repair the looks of the scenery…it won’t be all that much in the grand scheme of things…like wanting trouble-free running for the life of the layout.
wouldnt mind doing the filing down plastic parts but due to its dads baby I cant do anything like that he already said dont mess with my car so I have to reroute all traffic to the other line to make the repairs to the first set of tracks then I will have to reroute the traffic to the hopefully new and improved tracks so things should look good, I figure a total of 4 men hours.
Try removing the center axle of the 6-wheel trucks and see if the car tracks any better. You could probably leave the center axle out and your Dad my never notice that it’s not there.
You could replace the center axle with another axle on which the flanges have been filed off. Some steam lodomotives have blind flanges to allow them to negotiate tighter curves. If I remember correctly, some prototype locomotives had blind flanges for the same reason!
Also check the gauge of the track where you are having the problem. Lots of track has been unnecessarily torn up when only the out-of-gauge portion needed to be replaced.
If the coupler is attached to the truck, check to see if the it’s hitting the steps. Sometimes filing a little off the back of the steps or narrowing the shaft the coupler is mounted to, will allow the truck to swing enough.
Don’t feel bad. I’m sure most of us at one time or another has had to something like this. I did.
Bad Curve with new track pinned where it should have been all along. Shadow in picture is from valance.
New curve. Soaked area with water to loosen up scenery and scraped out. I left some of the remants of the old track in (road bed, ties, some rail) as part of the new scenery.
If it’s any consolation the real RR had to re-route some of their curves from time to time as stock got longer and/or to allow higher speed and/or heavier trainloads on grades.
If it was just one car, I would seriously consider ditching the car rather than ripping up a section of track. It is one of the compromises modelers have to make when the choose to go with tight curves. In a perfect world we would all have curves broad enough to hold the biggest equipment but that is not an option for everyone.
I’ve been having the same problem. The only part of the layout that I have put terrain down on have proven to have to small a radius on the curve. So I have decided that it is better to take the bull by it’s horns now rather then later, fix it and be able to enjoy a good track for years to come rather then feel aggrevated over a bad decision when I just started and the loss of a few dollars. If you consider the dollar loss of some small piece of terrain in comparison to what just EVERY single turnout costs the decision should be easy, or atleast less painfull.
Well messing with the trackage and I found out I can not enlarge the curves but I also looked at the car and if my dad gives me the answer soon I can make the car run on the radius I have just some filing and it should work.
