I have 2 GP38-2’s and I was wondering if anyone has had problems with the trucks. I have approx: 150 locomotives and 500 or so freight cars. All of my wheelsets are in guage and all the track is in guage. All my rolling stock runs for hours and hours without a problem, my proto 38-2’s will run for a while then just start jumping the track like jumping beans. As I said the wheelsets and track are in guage and they do not derail in the same spots. I am stumped, any ideas or similiar problems out there?
To be honest, my P2K GP38-2 doesn’t jump at all. It did have problems when it came to me with its curcuit board but I email Larry T with Walthers and he took care of it for me. Something might be catching and not allowing the truck(s) to get their full ability of movement, but I’m sure that you’ve already checked that. This was my problem with one of my SD40T-2 from Athearn. It wouldn’t go around a curve to the right without jumping track. I then found that the truck was catching on the frame.
D&HRR:
I would check the trucks…
1 - Put them on a flat surface (such as a sheet of glass) and make sure the truck is not warped. Warped trucks can cause derailments.
2 - Check the Blomberg sideframes and make sure they aren’t hanging loose and getting hung up on track joints or switch points.
3 - Disassemble the trucks and make sure they don’t have cracked gears. A wheel momentarily seizing up from a cracked gear might cause a derailment.
Good luck!
I have located the problem, One of the units is faster than the other and when they are run seperate they do just fine. When I run them as a pair they do OK but when I load them with 50 or so cars the one is trying to pull the cars and the other unit causing it to jump off the rails. Now the question is why is one so much faster than the other ? You would think being the same brand and the same model they would MU fine but I guess thats not the case.
Which unit is derailing? Is it the faster one or the slower. I could see if the lead was too slow and the 2nd unit was pushing and overdriving the wheels. This used to happen to my SD7s when new. Running older DC/ block control- if the lead unit ran into a block w/ a lower voltage (switch or turn), it would derail. These units also had the worm gear cover too tigtht not allowing any swiveling/ rocking motion in all the trucks. Sanded the fingers on the worm cover and the trouble was solved. It may be possible that this is happening as well.