Gday Guys,
My Athearn RTR SD45T-2 likes to jump the rails On my 22" radius curve, it is only the Front axle on the front truck, it has only just started doing it last night, when I was breaking it in, (side note: It was getting quieter!), I believe Joe Fugate had a similar problem with his SD45T-2s? If so is there a (fairly) simple way of rectifying it? i’m sure its not the 22" curve because my P2K SD60M runs around it just fine.
Any tips/suggestions/ideas?
Thanks,
James.
Well you might be surprised, I had a problem with 6 axle engines jumping the track on one of my curves. Most engines would not, but a few of the bigger ones did. To make a long story short, a piece of cork bubbled on the seam just enough to make the engines fall to the outside of the curve. All rolling stock and 4 axle engines ran fine, but certain ones did not.
Check the truck that is derailing to see if there are any snags causing it to bind as it goes around the curve. I had a problem with one of these engines on 26 inch radius curves. The solution was to cut away some of the plastic from the truck sideframe so it didn’t snag on the frame. Also check your wheel gauge and run your finger along the inside of track joints checking for sharp edges that may need to be filed down. You should probably also check for any small dips or rises in track height on the curve that might be causing a wheel or wheels to be raised up and jump off the track.
2 questions spring to mind,: first, are any power connection wires too short or hung up causing binding? and, two, you don’t mention if your curves have easements, sometimes entering an abrupt curve can cause a tight 6 wheel truck to climb. check the area with a track guage for pinching. If using flex all the open (sliding) ties should be to the outside of the curve. This has the effect of slightly widening the guage rather than pinching it.
Ok I’ve ruled out my track, coz i’m kind of a perfectionist [:D] By the way my track is all level. I will get the gauge out and double check everything tonight. if all my track is fine, I will try cacoles suggestion.
Thanks Guys!
Forgot to mention, when I was running it, it wouldn’t do it every time, maybe everysecond time, and in reverse it was fine.
One more thing you may want to check, just make sure the power truck is moving freely. Bluebox there may be a problem, if it’s a Genesis it’s probly not the Loco. Good luck
My experience says otherwise, I had 3 Genesis SD70MACs and all of them had truck problems and wouldnt stay on the track. I ordered replacement trucks for all of them and they still wouldnt stay on, the problem was that the brass contact strip for the wheels was being bent in the factory. Granted these were a while ago and they may have fixed the problem by now, but the genesis I had were anything but reliable. They look nice but mechanically arent so nice. I also broke lots of the driveshafts pulling long trains with them. I sold all 3 and havent bought any genesis since.
I did buy a dash 9 RTR though and that had a problem like you are talking about. Whenever it hit a curve less than about a 40 inch radius it would just flop over on its side. If you have messed around with one of those you know how rediculous the slack in the trucks is and it turns out the truck would slide back so far that it would hit the frame and flip the loco over. I ground out a lot of the frame around where the front truck was hitting and it runs fine now.
Ok, I’ve tinkered with it a little, and I ran it around at various speeds, and its fine, if the problem comes back, I will try some of the above tips to more of an extent.
I thought of one more problem I encountered similar to your, I had hard wired my athearn, and when you picked up the engine the trucks were being pulled to one side, I had to change the wiring I had done, by the wire pulling the trucks constantly to one side, it would derail on a curve. Make sure the trucks an turn side to side freely, but are not forced to turn in one direction.
LOL! Thanks for sharing that…[:D] Now I don’t feel so bad knowing I ain’t the only one that has done that…[:0][B)]
I am having the same problem and have found the problem[:D] Problem is I don’t want to fix the problem[:D]
Going around the turns the ladders of my FP-45’s are being hit by the trucks. Don’t want to cut the ladders off the body.
Try one your chassis only and see if they stop jumping the track, Mine like yours it is the front axels that come off.
Cuda Ken
Ok people. I guess you guys are going to make me the Athean specialist here. Here we go. What do your trucks derail at the front and no the rear going around 22" curves is because Athearn trucks lack weight. Try putting thoes 1/4oz square weights (the ones with the double sided tape on the back of it) on the truck from the inside. Put 2 (1 on each side) just above the frame and turn the truck back and forth to make shure it turns freely and don’t hit the shell. Try this for both trucks. It has a number of advantages.
Look at your Athearn six axel loco then look at a P2K or Kato. Notice anything? The frame. Athearn fram is too light compared to P2K or Kator AND Atlas. Don’t rely on the motor for that weight. It’s still not enough. Putting weight in the shell is pointless. Yes you add weight to the loco, but that has very little affect on the trucks.
If you want to test this theory, Just put something heavy on the truck and run in over the track where it had problems at. I bet there will be no problem. Then you know , weight is needed. Case & Point, Why is the P2K E6,7,8/9 run so smooth. Look at the piece of wieght they have on top of the motor. It’s long enough to supply weight to the trucks.
WEIGHT WEIGHT WEIGHT. That’s what it’s all about.
Stewarts, P2K F-UNITS vs Athearn F-UNIT. WHY DO THEY OUT CLASS ATHEARN. Because their chassis is heavier than Athearn.
Weight Weight Weight. !!!
A train,Athearn locos has always been on the light side…[:(] Never could understand why Athearn didn’t add the needed weight years ago…The “Super Power” F7 was the only BB unit to come with added weight.
For the BB and RTR BB units I add 6 pieces of stick on weight for extra traction power…This also cuts the shell chatter in the older BB locomotives…So far to date all of my RTR GP38-2s and GP40-2s has been smooth and quiet from the box. My 2 RTR SD40-2s are smooth as well…[:D]
I easily solved the problem with my Athearn SD45T-2 trucks climbing the outside rail on tight curves.
The middle wheelset in the truck needs more play. I put the unit upside down in a loco cradle and popped the truck cover off the bottom. Then I took out the center wheelset and ground down the tip of each axle about 1/32 of an inch or so using a motor tool and a heavy duty cutoff wheel – just enough to remove most of the taper on the end of the axle (I made sure there was a bit of taper still left).
I put the wheelset back into the truck and snapped the cover back on. Then I tested the side to side play and saw it was greatly increased. I likewise did the other truck.
This took all of about 10 minutes and then when I put the loco back on the track and tested it at the bad curve locations, it tracked like a champ without any further problems.
I now do this modification to all my Athearn SD45T-2s as I put them into service. I have 7 of them on the layout, and have had no further tracking problems after making this fix.
[swg]
Thank you Joe!
[:D]
I will try that, when I got some time
thankyou for all your replies.
James
You’re welcome, James.
Always glad to help out a fellow modeler. [swg]
On mine, with the shell off the chassis runs fine. Will try the middle wheel trick on one of the FP-45. Are the FP-45 the same as the 45T?
Cuda Ken
Joe, Do you think your idea would work with atlas C40-8s and C40-8Ws, Me and a friend of mine can’t keep ours on the track and the Middle Axel on both trucks doesn’t have much play in it. It seems like it would make since, but i love my C40-8s and don’t want to cut into them yet.
Jay:
Not sure how the Atlas axles are constructed, but you could look and see if the axle tips just float in the sideframes and if the wheelsets are actually supported inside the wheel on a metal plate like the Athearns are. And see how much axletip material there is past the wheel on the outside ends. On the Athearn’s it’s a good 1/8" – so grinding 1/32" off each end gives another 1/16" of side-to-side play, which makes a vast difference.
If this is all true, then removing a little material off the axletips should help the middle wheelset have more side-to-side play on your C40s.
Ok, Thanks alot Joe. I’ll pass on the info to my friend that has a C40-8W thats already pretty torn up, so I’ll let him know. And I’ll let you guys know the experiment works. Joe I don’t know what some of us would do without you.