Is it the track laying? Is it the track plan? Is it the switches? Why do HO trains derail so much? I want to avoid this problem with the layout I’m building.
Grayson
There are several things to do to avoid derailments.
I. Benchwork - make certain the benchwork is strong and stable. Benchwork flexing and bowing for whatever reason will eventually cause humps and bumps in the trackwork it supports.
II. Subroadbed - just like the benchwork you don’t want a lot of flexing. Make certain grade changes are smooth and gradual.
III. Roadbed - what ever type is used make certain it is smooth. I often will sand homosote or cork to make certain they don’t have bumps.
IV. Track work
A. Joints don’t have bumps. Tops of the rails are the same height.
B. Curves don’t have kinks.
C. Track is in gauge, especially through turnouts.
D. Turnout guard rails keep the wheels positioned where they are supposed to go.
E. Turnout point rails don’t poke up and are flush against the rail when closed.
V. Layout
A. No “S” curves. Put a straight track in between so the cars aren’t pulling horizontally away from one another when they go through (don’t forget the “S” in a crossover between turnouts). The sharper the curves and the longer the cars the worse the “S” syndrom is.
B. curves as gentle as possible.
C. Easements on curves.
VI. Rolling Stock
A. Wheels in gauge.
B. Wheels centered on axles.
C. Axles spin freely in the trucks.
D. Trucks pivot freely on the bolster.
E. Trucks have some degree (small amount) of side to side and front to back rock.
i
If you have done a good job at laying your track, you should have very few problems with derailments.Take note of where they derail and look closely at the rails, they must be the proper distance apart and the gaps where the sections meet must not be to far apart and for the most part, flat along the top of the rail. There are numerous reasons why the train will derail. Have you soldered the joints? Is it the loco or the rolling stock that derails. More info would help. Mike
Good trackwork, wheels in gauge, and if you use Kadee couplers or any of their clones make sure the trip pin is not so low that it snags on turnouts and crossovers. Some rolling stock needs to have weight added to help it stay on the track, too.
When I lay track, I always use a small bubble level and check that there are no sudden dips or rises in one rail or the other; I check all wheelsets with a NMRA gauge, and check Kadee style couplers with a height gauge. I also try to weigh everything to the NMRA recommended weight of 1 ounce plus 1/2 ounce for each inch of actual car length.
By doing this when I built a 20 x 40 foot HO scale club layout, we can run all day with no derailments provided all of the members have properly tuned up their locomotives and rolling stock.
Well, my derailments is probably becuase in my previous layouts on a 4x8, with the ballast just thrown on top of the track, and mixing code 100 and code 83 together, was probably the problems, making a quality layout might make me not have as much derailments.
Thanks,
Grayson
You’re just quicker than me. That means post-is-in-process. See the post now.
A COMBINATION of wheels following the track.
1.Smooth Trackwork - Avoid ‘S’ curves, kinks, & Curves that are too tight. Code differences are largely what ‘Looks’ better.
2. Turnouts - have Gaps and Geometry problems. Cheaper is not better.
3. Wheelsets - need to be 'in gage’ and horizontally & vertically free to follow rails.
4. Uniform Car Weight - or within reason. 3-4 oz. per car or 1/2 oz. per Inch. NMRA uses a combination: 1 oz. per car + 1/2 oz. per inch.
Truck weight is ‘unsprung’ and better than weight above the truck. Therefor metal wheels are heavier than plastc, and metal trucks are better yet.
5. Uniform Coupler Height - Connects cars.
Too wit: If the trackwork (including switches) is ‘iffy’, nothing will work right. ALL of these singly or combine to create derailments, I have put these in what I feel is the Order of IMPORTANCE.
The one ridiculously small trick I use that changes derailments from frequent occurrences to almost unknown phenomena is:
Debur the rail ends, then file a barely visible bevel in the top inside corner of the railhead on both sides of every joint. Viola! Nothing that a flange can catch on in an attempt to climb over the rail, even if the flange has a pizza cutter or trapezoidal cross-section.
Then, look at your rolling stock. Are the wheels centered on the axle? (Don’t laugh. Athearn BBs with plastic wheels on steel axles are notorious for this.) Can one truck rock in relation to the frame? Are all four wheels on the (level both ways) rails? Remember, there is only .025 inch of flange guiding the wheels down the track - and on our curves, the flange definitely gets involved! It needs all the help you can give it.
Finally, are your couplers all set to standard height? Do all the trip pins clear the shelf on the coupler height gauge? If you slam two cars together, check BOTH at the first opportunity. (Don’t stop operations unless a coupler is obviously damaged - but DO check them before the next session. I use inspect____ and Bad Order waybills in the car cards as reminders.)
The one thing NOT to do is simply re-rail the cars and press on. If you don’t check to determine the cause, you’ll never find a cure for derailments.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - derailment-free)
AND Don’t forget to keep the turnouts properly set.
There are three major things that cause derailments.
Couplers, track and trucks.
If your couplers are set properly and the trip pin is at the correct height, you won’t have a problem with them. If they aren’t, you’ll have all kinds of problems, including uncouplings and mysterious derailments.
Take your time putting your track down. If you do it right in the first place you will have many, many hours of carefree operation, but if you try to hurry through it and don’t do it properly, you’ll have no end of problems, such as kinks, humps and twists. Whats a twist? That’s when the track tilts to one side then suddenly tilts to the other side causing the wheels of your locomotive to lift off of one rail while still sitting on the other. This will cause the loco or some of the cars to derail at that spot. Four axle diesels usually handle them alright but six axle diesels will derail there, time after time. And don’t even think of running a steamer over it.
On the subject of trucks, they should be able to turn freely from side to side and rock slightly under the car. If you have a car that rocks to much, tighten one truck but the other loose to absorb the motion. Make sure the wheels are in gauge and make sure the wheels are centered on the axle. If they’re not, the wheels will force the truck against the rails causing a derailment.
Avoid derailments??? only way I can think to avoid them is to never run your trains…[:)]
But seriously, if you’re having a lot of problems, you need to take the advice of the other posters and maybe even start all over…you said you just threw the ballast on your previous layout and you mixed code 83 and 100 track…two big mistakes, but we all learn from our mistakes and thats why no layout is ever really ‘‘permanent’’.
You’ll never eliminate derailments…even the real railroads can’t do that…but you can cut way down on them by keeping up the maintenence on your layout and equipment, I had several boxcars that kept derailing on curves…a quick inspection showed me that the wheels were grungy and a cleaning fixed the problem, little things like that can cause you no end of headaches, so take the advice of the other posters and you should a lot fewer problems.
Don’t have any turnouts!!! Seriously, almost all my derailments are at turnouts. You might consider a design where one track is the “through” track with very few turnouts and the other track is the “switch” track. Just an idea.
One thing I have noticed. My layout seems to “learn”. At first I will have some derailments and problems, but as I run the train more and more, I get fewer problems. Wierd I know. Anyone else notice this?
A note on turnouts. To help prevent wheels from picking the points, lightly file the point rails so that they blend smoothly with the stock rail. You will be amazed at the difference this can make.
All of the above is excellent information…I just want to stress the importance of smooth track work,wheels in gauge and couplers and trip pins at the correct height makes for zero derailments.Thats the top 3 items all the rest including adding weight [xx(] is icing on the cake.
Your trains should run through a switch with zero derailments…Accept nothing less.Use a NMRA gauge to check your switches and wheel gauge to insure all is well.
After reading this I was wondering if anyone here has a basement layout. Here in NYC we have a 65’ x 35’ room in the basement of an apt building. Great stuff as far as expensive real estate goes here, but… hot and cold, as well as moisture affect the layout in the way of warping, gaps in the track, curved turnouts going in and out of gauge not to mention the other seasonal gremlins which just basically do what they want.
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Yes, I have a basement layout that I’m in the process of completing. Here in Alabama, we don’t get much cold but we do get plenty of heat and humidity so I was very careful to leave about a 2 mm gap between each rail section. I use a lot of Bachmann E-Z track and find it less sensitive to movement from climate changes but the gaps still help. I also don’t spike down my turnouts. I depend on the ballast to hold it on place and find there’s enough “give” to take up the slack when there’s some distortion due to heat and/or humidity. So far, I can run 30 car trains very reliably so I guess I’m either lucky or doing somethng right. [:)]
As far as the train “learning” they layout, I’ve noticed the same thing. I suspect one wheel has a slight burr that gets worn off when running or a slightly out of gauge wheel manages to get itself back in gauge. It seems like it will be a different car each time. I check it out, everything looks fine, and it runs fine after that. It’s always the first few passes around the layout when I haven’t run for a while so maybe it’s some small piece of crud that gets moved aside after a couple of passes. I’ve learned not to get too excited about derailments until the train has made at least five passes around the mainline.
Jim,Heres the rub…Your train should not derail at all…Again accept nothing less then derailment free operation.
Gandy dancer has made a good list.
I have derailments when I’m not concentrated. A wrong turnout is my most common problem.
Wolfgang