I’ll try to describe this the best I can but being new and not familar with the correct terminology I’m not sure how it will come out.
I have a pair of 022 switches on an oval end to end so that I can park one consist and pick up another. The switches are from the same pair so that in the end there are 2 deadend spurs (I don’t know if that’s what they’re called) where I park the cars. They are connected directly to each other without any other track in between (I’ve seen it in other photos). When in reverse the lighter cars (gondolas, tanker…) or longer cars (6436 hoppers…) derail. Speed doesn’t seem to matter.
Any help will be appreciated. It is a temporary layout while building a “permanent” one, but is a configuration I’d like to go with.
Being that you said you’re using 022 turnouts I’m assuming that you have O scale. Your light cars need to be weighted. Take a car 10 inches long, it has an initial weight of 5 ounces. Add 1 ounce of extra weight for every inch of car length. The car should now weigh 15 ounces. Take a look at the NMRA weight standards at this link.
I think our friend Jeff is right. It might be a weight thing. If not it might also be a track laying problem. Maybe the cars are binding. The track might be to wide or not wide enough. Just a few little things to keep in mind.
If I understand correctly there is one swich off the oval and it immediately is connected to the second switch making two dead-end sidings. Are the cars derailing in the first switch, the second switch, or right between the two? This might be an “S” curve problem.
Do the cars have the couplers mounted so that they pivot with the wheels, or are they mounted on the bodies of the cars. If the answer is “both” that could also be an issue.
I was thinking the same as TZ…couplers and/or simply too much “S”, although I can’t really understand your description. Backing seems to be a bear in every scale, but a show-stopper is mis-matched, improperly mounted, or simply the wrong couplers, while the S-curve seems to be a general no-no across scales…including the real world.
TZ and everyone else, yes it is “O” gauge, I always forget to mention that.
Thanks for the replies. I warned you that my description might be tough to decipher. TZ, yes it is at the first switch where it goes into the first siding which would be an “S”. The couplers are all truck mounted Lionel PW couplers, I do have a 2460 pushing a gondola into the curve but I added pea gravel to the load for extra weight and that didn’t seem to help much and the 6465 tanker has the same problem so I keep it in the consist that goes into the second siding. It doesn’t seem to happen into the second siding though.
Is the turnout in good order? It gauges out well, the points are sharp, they lie against their stock rails snugly when a truck traverses onto them, or even when that truck gets closer to the frog, but before the second truck makes contact? Are they derailing at the frog?
Maybe some pointed observations will help. Do several trials at different speeds, and note carefully where things seem to go awry, and what happens…which wheel, which truck, etc.
I’ll do some testing this weekend and see how it goes. I hooked the switches to fixed voltage last night. So may now that they “snap” into place the problem may be solved. (Somehow I doubt it) Will report back when the trials are over. This may seem like a dumb question, but if “S” are a recurrent problem how do you make a single siding much less than a few in a row?
I’m not quite sure how you get the example below. The one to the left is exactly what I have.
Do you put a full or half straight between switches creating sidings more on an angle to the mainline and less parallel to it like the example on the left?
