Ebay has had a bunch of C&O 2-6-6-2’s for auction. I decided to get one to see what they were. Anyone else get one? The price was right. It’s not a bad looking model. Similar to my brass 2-6-6-2, but not as nice looking.
PROBLEM; It derails everywhere. The tender just lifts off the track. The trailing truck jumps everywhere. The front drivers lift off the track. I suppose that when I look at it long enough I will identify the problems.
THE QUESTION: Are any of you farther along in solving this to give me some hints and save me some time?
As for the tenders, Bachmann tenders are all too light to track well. Add about 2.5 oz of weight to them. I have over thirty spectrum locos of various types and all require extra weight in the tenders.
As for the trailing truck, check the long swing drawbar on the 2-6-6-2 to make sure it, the trailing truck and the wires from the tender are all neatly arranged to not conflict with each other. I did ajust the drawbar upwards some at the end so that it is level, not hanging down.
As for the front drivers, I have no clue other than to question your trackwork or the radius of your curves. Dispite the small size of this loco for an articulated, I would not recommend less than 22-24" radius.
I have one of the early versions of this engine and have had no problems with derailing. A LHS installed a Tsunami heavy steam decoder which works fine but is very sensative to dirty track and doesn’t always like Atlas turnouts. It seems to operate equally well on my 18 and 22 radius curves.
Art, I have 2 of them. Both nice running locos. That said I too had derailing problems when I first got them… Have you made sure that all the little foam packing dohickeys have been removed? There are a copple wedged up in the housing both front and back I think. Removing them…[:-^] made a world of difference on mine…[swg]
that was the problem mine had, the foam is the same color as the loco and easy to miss, especially on the factory weathered version, as the foam was installed before the weathering painted on, hiding it even more.
A couple of preliminary questions. Are we talking about the older Spectrums without sound or the newer release with or without sound? Also, is your engine new or used?
I have the older Spectrum C&O 2-6-6-2 and it is one of my favorite engines.
I did add weight to the front pilot truck, as I do with all of my steamers, to eliminate derailment problems.
Regarding the rear truck, if it is jumping all over the place, try adding weight to the rear truck as well. I don’t usually have to add weight to the rear truck on my engines, but I did have to add weight to two of my BLI engines on their rear trucks because they were jumping all over the place.
If the front drivers are lifting off the track, I would examine how the rear truck is mounted to the engine. I just got a 2-10-4 steamer back from BLI where they replaced a tight spring that was mounted between the rear truck and the underbody of the engine with a spring with less tension. The tighter spring was holding down the rear truck but lifting the driver wheels (the ones closer to the rear truck). I don’t know if your rear truck is spring mounted or simply screwed into the underbody of the engine.
Lastly, regarding the tender, whenever I have had a problem with the tender
Thanks everyone. I spent a little time last night and made two changes:
I added weight to the tender. That seemed to help.
I bent the draw bar so it cleared the wheels on the trailing truck on my 18" curves. I am finding that more things on 18" than manufacturers say. I found that the bump on the wheels where they are attached to the axel hit the draw bar. I simply bent the draw bar up and then back. It will take a couple days to know if that was enough.
I did take a bunch of foam out, but I will recheck that as well.
It is my experience that manufacturers are not completely honest when they give you a minimum radius. What they mean is, “Our lovingly hand assembled prototype pre-production model will handle the carefully laid and guaged x” radius turn with no turnouts or inclines on our factory’s test track." not “our production model can handle any quality of trackwork, turnouts, and inclines of the same radius.”
I always try to spot them 2" of radius, so if it says 22" radius minimum, I either don’t buy it for my layout (which has 22" radius turns) or prepare to tweak it until it runs properly.