I just purchased a Rivarossi FEF-3 UP 844 loco. It’s the 2003 release. I was running it for the first time today and every time the loco would go up a slight grade or over a turnout the tender would derail. All of my track work is extremely smooth and the turnouts are properly in the closed position. If anyone else has had similar problems with the tender please let me know how you went about solving the problem. Thanks UP3985
Check the gauge of both the wheels in the tender and the tracks all the way through the turnout. Check flangeway depth through the frog. Those are the likely culprits.
I recently turned my Hudson around to run it counter-clockwise. It had never had a problem doing this prior to today, but it suddenly began to drop its rear truck down onto the ties as it ran past the points. Now, some time back, I tweaked those points to round them a bit more, and I gauged them to be sure I had not undone a good thing. No problem, and my Challenger was happy. Not the J1. I ran it through that spot ten times if I did it once, with magnifier and mirrors to watch the back side. Couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Gauge said it was okay, and the points were not loose on their hinges…they didn’t rock back and forth. Then, I remembered my “cosmetic surgery”, and straightened the point that I had rounded. Hudson gave me a big thumbs-up as it trundled through.
Something is out of whack, but it must be a gauge fault. Either that, or the flange path is fouled for at least one of the wheels on that tender.
Other remote possibilities include tender too long for the type of turnout, tender lead truck not tracking well…there may be others, but I can’t think of them.
Good luck.
Check the tender trucks for binding as they try to rotate; check the gauge of the tender wheels using an NMRA gauge; check that the screw holding the trucks in place is not so tight that the trucks can’t freely rotate; check the trucks to insure that they have adequate front-to-rear free play, and that the transition from level to inclined isn’t causing the tender trucks to rub on or snag on the bottom.
Another thing to check, not mentioned, is to make sure the draw bar and wiring if it has it is free. If there is binding here it is most always the rear tender truck that is derailed. Ken
You may also need more weight in it, those centepede tenders are really screwy like that, and I put more weight in mine and it helped the problem.