I am curious if you have a regular maintenance schedule for your rolling stock or if you just wait until there is a problem and fix it?
Since I neither oil or lubricate any moving parts, the only time a piece of rolling stock would sit on the RIP track is if something were broken - e.g. stirrup, coupler spring. That rarily happens…
Tom
I’m at a loss as to what “scheduled maintenance” you would do on a model train car.
For the freight cars and passenger cars, I have no scheduled maintenance on mine since I have them tuned up before they go on the layout. For my locomotives, I keep track of when I last cleaned the wheels and when I last opened them up to do any tuning up, servicing, etc.
Kevin
I guess I was thinking about checking and adjusting couplers, cleaning wheels and checking for loose parts. I have a unit train of 32 Walthers ore cars that hadn’t been run for a while and when I got it going today I had many derailments. I am going to have to go over each car looking for problems.
Rick
I guess that the best schedule is when the problem shows up. But I am wondering what causes your freight cars having problem after not using for a while. Is it because your room is too humid or something？For most of plastics and metals, they are pretty stable in terms of shape, etc…
Jerry
Hi Rick,
I don’t do scheduled maintenance on my freight or passenger cars, but I do give them a thorough tune up before I put them on the track.
The first step is to replace any plastic wheel sets with metal ones, usually InterMountain, and check that the wheels are in gauge and spin freely. I have never found the need to use a truck tuner.
Then I address the weight issue. I use the NMRA recommended practise of one ounce plus 1/2 ounce for every inch of the car length. I use 1/16" lead sheet for adding weight. It is normally used as roof flashing and is available on line or at any roofing distributor. It can be cut with scissors or tin snips. It is much cheaper than buying automotive wheel weights and it can be cut to whatever shape fits best.
Next I tune up the couplers. All the non-metal couplers get replaced with Kadees, but before I do that I check out how well the coupler boxes are mounted. I have found that on many cars, particularly Athearn BB, the frame and coupler box are not sitting tight against the weight. This results in the couplers sitting too low and/or the shell sitting too high. In many cases, even after the frame and coupler box have been mounted properly, the couplers will still be too low. I have not had any situations where I couldn’t fix the problem with Kadee red or gray washers, but I will admit to using two or three of them on occassion.[:$] I never felt the need to get into the Kadee overset or underset coupler heads.
Once the trucks are in place I check to see that they pivot properly. I use the recommended practise of having one truck tight enough that it will rotate easily but not rock too much, and the other truck is set somewhat looser so it can rock side to side moderately. While I am at it I make sure that the trucks do not hit any of the undergear, steps etc. I have a couple of Walthers cabooses and a Walthers passenger car where I had to remove a small part of the back of the steps in order for the trucks to pivot. I will
Before they go on my serviceable list, I make sure my rolling stock will roll freely on a 2% incline, make sure that it’s at least at the NMRA recommended weight, and that the couplers are at the correct height and are operating correctly.
I haven’t seen the need to change to all metal wheelsets, and will use under or overset couplers, and while Kadee No 5 couplers are my go-to, I don’t change out other brands unless I’ve found them unsatisfactory.
After that the rolling stock only gets on the RIP track if something needs rectifying.
[2c][2c] Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Before any car “went into service”, I did various tests/improvements. Since the vast majority of them were kit built, I installed KD couplers (and tested with a gauge), and Intermountain wheelsets. Then I did a 2 percent grade test for “rollability”. The last test was the ability to go around my tightest curve of 26 inches. The only cars that had a problem were the Walthers passenger cars, and they required various “helps” to free them up.
So, once the cars were on the layout, it was relatively rare that a problem arose, and those few centered around couplers or diaghrams.
What I found odd over the years was the few RTR cars tended to need more help by far than the many kits I built.
So to answer your question, I had to maintenance schedule whatsoever.
The room that the layout is in has little humidity and stable temperature. I have had his unit train for over 20 years and it always ran fine with the original wheelsets that Walthers put on them.
These cars have odd couplers. They don’t operate and just lock the ore cars together. When I first set it up money was tight and I only replaced them with Kadee on 6 cars so that I could break it apart if I wanted.
I will check the wheels and replace all of the couplers that weren’t done before. I have a fair number of cars on the layout that still have plastic wheels. I guess that is going to be my maintenance routine - replace them all.
Rick
I wait until there is a problem, and then I fix it.
In other words, I have a regular maintenance schedule. [swg]
Ongoing and constant, or so it seems.
Rich
Why??
[:)]
I agree…I don’t have any issues with plastic wheels, and they’re at least a lot quieter than the metal wheels. I don’t worry much about rolling qualities, as I have lots of locos available if I wish to run long or heavy trains.
Wayne
I guess I was anticipating the problem being the wheels.
Rick
What about if you just run these 6 cars? Do you still have derailment? I guess you still have plastic wheels on them. If so, this may help if the connections causes the problem, not wheels…
Jerry
Gidday Rick, as I understand it, the problem you have is that your 20-year-old unit train, with odd couplers (??) has run reliably until you’ve replaced the couplers in six cars.
Rule #1 in the Bears book of troubleshooting, is to eliminate the last thing that was changed first. In this case the couplers.
See hjQi Jerrys suggestion regarding those 6 cars.
Good luck.
Cheers, the Bear. [:)]
No, those couplers were changed 20 years ago.
The spot I had the most trouble with was coming off a long downhill grade. Only running six cars won
No actual schedule for freight cars - All get metal wheelsets and KD couplers (unless they have metal KD Clones) and tested prior to being placed into service.
Cars that can be opened up are properly weighted (or made slightly heavy) using wheel weights I got on the cheap.
Only “issues” get further maintainance.
On your issue, if the derailments occur at the same location, but different cars, it might be a track issue instead of a rolling stock issue… You say the same train derails at other locations, but is it possible that it is derailing at one spot and rail-riding? (One wheelset off, but “floating” or riding on the wheel flange on top of the rail until that point?)
If a car derails, I make a mark with a silver Sharpie on the underside. If it gets 3 marks, I take it off the layout and check coupler height, wheel gauge, weight, and truck swivel. I’ll make any adjustments and put it back in service. If it derails again, I remove it from the layout, remove all reusuable parts, then throw it in the trash after first stomping it to bits. Life is too short to waste time trying to fix junk. A Walthers Budd combine recent met that fate. That car had been nothing but trouble for me from the day I got it and I regret spending as much time as I did trying to rehab it. It was junk and ended up where junk belongs.
I do not even know my ratio of metal to plastic wheels. The only trouble I had with running plastic wheels is the ‘‘gunk’’ build up on the treads.