im not sure how to explain it, but over the past few weeks I have been adding more and more cars to my collection. Recenly I bought some Exactrail box cars and a gondola, and my wife got me some more Exactrail box cars. I noticed that the cars are kind of jerking or something… almost like some cars slow down then speed up… instead of all being pulled at the same rate. I think it has something to do with when it hits the curves…
At first I thought I had too many cars on the track. I had about 24… but I took out about 6 and it still does it… this never happened before. I am wondering if it has something to do with the Exactrail cars… if I put the car on the track and just give it a push it will roll about 1 foot and stop. some other cars, that were a lot cheaper will go a lot farther as if the wheels just operate smoother. I dont really know what to do about this…
im sure its something that you more experienced folks have seen and corrected.
Are you sure the locomotive is not jerking? Coupler slack can cause an accordion effect on long trains.
I’ve had this happen with HO scale trains of 20 or so cars, but know of no real cure for the problem other than putting a caboose or freight car on the end that is harder to pull than any other cars, which tends to keep the slack action out of the couplers.
I recently equipped a train of 25 old-time wood reefers with Sergent Engineering couplers. Their close tolerances stop a lot of the slack action.
What locomotive (make, model, manufaturer, etc) are you running? It’s possible that the locomotive is (and has been) “pulsating” but it’s just more magnified now that you have more cars behind it.
I just sent a new steamer back to the backshop because it was “pulsating” down the track. It wasn’t quite as evident at low speed. However, once the locomotive got up to around speed step 040 or so, you could really tell that the drivers were binding slightly.
I am not sure if it is the loco, but if it is, it just started, but I have 3 locos I use and it does not seem to matter which one. All are atlas, diesels, im at work now and do not remember the actual style of the loco, I know I should have that memorized lol
Accordian, is a good way of putting it.
One thing I think is that prior to DCC I was running 3 locos in a consist so it probably was pulling everything nicely. 2 of the 3 run about the same speed and one is a bit faster. I had found a combination that worked really well.
Now that I just recently went DCC I have not done the consist other than to try it out…so I am just running one loco on the main line and the other 2 over in the yard now that I can do things like that.
I just ordered 20 packages of #5 couplers as all the cars seem to have different brands of couplers…so I wanted them to be all the same. This should help correct?
The issue you have is the combination of slack in the couplers and free-rolling rolling stock. One solution would be to use Sergent couplers. Or another solution would be to add a spring to one of the axle cones to add resistance to the rolling.
that kind of makes sense as the Exactrail cars seem to have more rolling resistance than the other cars… so some roll smooth some do not…so I basically need all cars to have the same resistance and the couplers to be tight…
I looked at the Sergent Couplers, those look awesome. it looks to be quite an investment, but I bet it is worth it… so if I have 25 cars, thats about $400-500 bucks to get them converted. At first I thought maybe you can slowly convert but it said that coupler is not compatible with the stock couplers.
If you don’t already have it, you need The Tool from Micro Mark, a small thick axle with a rubber turning collar, and two pointed ends that fit into the receptacle of your truck sideframes. One of the ends is a two-bladed ream. It is also known as the Truck Tuner.
In most cases, all trucks could stand ‘dressing’ up with this nifty tool that ranks right up there in must-have territory with the NMRA gauge and an Opti-Visor.
Our rolling items, when used over time, collect crud in the bearings. At some point, it makes sense to begin removing two or three cars at a time, keeping a record of which ones, and cleaning them up. I won’t claim that it will eliminate all your bunching and slacking problems, but it will go a long way to making all your cars more willing to press up against the car in front of it on downhill grades.
Nothing wrong with replacing all the couplers. Kadee #5 or #58 is said to be the best by the majority of modelers. You said that the new cars seem to have a resistance when rolling, only moving a foot. That seems like a huge resistance. Try these few things first and it may improve the rolling stock.
Get a truck tuner and clean out the bearings of each wheel.
Get an NMRA standards gage and measure the wheel sets to make sure they are within gage. Also you can use this gauge or one made by Kadee to measure that coupler heights are equal.
Make sure the trucks can pivot freely on curves, but leave one a bit looser so that it can rock as well. This will help prevent some derailments.
Try and keep each car about the same weight. NMRA has a chart, but 3.5 to 4.0 oz. seems to work well. You can put stick-on weights inside the car body.
I have the track tuner on the way! Thank you to all that suggested it. I also have the NMRA Gauge but I have never known what to do if you do indeed find out the wheels are out of spec? how do you adjust them?
Also I got an email of one more post on this thread but I do not see it here…but someone posted that it would not be as much as I stated above to use the seargent couplers. I thought the $7 was per coupler, not for a set. So thank you for that info.
I will also try the suggestion of removing cars and noting what was wrong and working on one issue at a time.
i have run my kadee track gage all over the track and i have no track issues that I can detect. I have fixed all of those and seem to be smooth running. I had some kinks and some bad joints at first but I relaid those track sections and all is well.
I also have one Exactrail box car that will kick on wheel off on one of the curves… just one of the cars…so maybe I do not have that truck as loose as it needs to be?
A very nice person here private messaged me and give me a very good summary of the seargent line and how they work and what exactly to order so I have 10 packs of the EC87A on the way! and the uncoupling wand too. So wish me luck and I thank you all!
How tight are the curves? I don’t have any Exactrail cars myself, but if they are long cars, do they have a recommended minimum radius?
I’m thinking that there is some extra friction as the cars go into a curve. The wheels may be brushing up agains some part of the frame, perhaps a coupler pocket or grab-on. Or, the trucks might be reaching their rotational limit, and the wheels are pushing against the inside of the rail rather than rolling smoothly over it.
If this is the case, changing couplers will not make things better. In fact, reducing coupler slack might make things worse, leading to derailments.
See if the car will take a curve a bit tighter than the ones on your layout. If you’re right at the limit, this is the kind of problem you might see.
my curves are 22" curves. The boxcars are not too long but a bit longer than some on my layout…the car is this one;
Nothing has changed on my curves and I didnt used to have this issue until i added so many cars and it seems to be worse when I use any of the exactrails.
This will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Eitherway, i think I really do want the seargent couplers.
I do have the truck tuner coming, and when all of this arrives ill be on vacation so ill have loads to time to tinker…I hope I dont get frustrated lol.
I’ve seen similar on my layout when running very slow. A couple of things that I noticed is on my 2% grade, while on the downside cars will jerk as they try to descend faster than the engine is pushing them. They’ll push and cause slack in the couplers then stop As the engine continues to pull it takes up the slack and tug the cars getting them moving again and starting the cycle over. The same thing can happen on curves or turnouts with long trains. If there are one or more cars slightly binding it will pull the slack out of the length. When the bind loosens the cars spring back slightly. This happens especially with long freight cars with overhangs. My curves are 22 inches. I find that if I increase the speed just a little that the issue clears.
One thing nobody mentioned: Is your track clean? I use CRC 2-26 electronics cleaner (HD/Lowes), just spray some on a lint-free cloth and wipe the rails down. Don’t use GooGone.
Left Coast Rail, I do not have the locos in a consist right now as i have not speed matched yet…the accordian effect is happening even with one loco.
Modelmaker51, track is clean as far as I can tell, as im always hitting it with the briteboy…
Since I posted this…I found one small dip on the right hand rail just as it went into a curve. the same curve where that one car’s wheel would come off the track. The roadbed and the foam under it all dipped just ont he right side of the rail for about 1 inch…I had not noticed this before. so I have that all shimmed up and I am not having the wheel problem and the accordian effect seems a lot better. I still have not put all the cars on it just yet to do a full test, but i will wait until the Seargent couplers come in.
