I was reading Andy Sperandeo’s recent article in the March issue of MRR called “Only Perfect is Good Enough”. The article inspired me to check my track work once again to decide what is “good enough”.
Bachmann recently replaced a faulty engine of mine with a new one, a steam engine, but a different model and wheel configuration than my faulty steam engine since it is no longer in production. The replacement steam engine runs fine, but the pilot truck wheels keep derailing and at different places on my layout. All my other steam engines run fine, so my track work, in spite of its flaws, is “good enough”.
In desperation, yesterday, after looking over my track work and adding weight to the pilot truck on this engine, I removed the pilot truck altogether and it ran fine. But, now I have a 0-10-4 steamer, kinda weird.
A little while back, BLI repaired another of my steam engines by adding a spring to the rear truck to keep that truck on the track. Now, I am wondering if it would be effective to add a spring to the pilot truck on my Bachmann engine to provide the needed pressure to keep the wheels on the track.
Has anyone done this to a steam engine to keep it from derailing?
And, if so, where is a good source to purchase a variety of springs to experiment?
In fact I remove many/most of the factory springs on pilot and trailing trucks. Such springs transfer weight from the driving wheels just like any other suspension and reduce pulling power.
I would still be looking at the trackwork, OR the radius of curves and turnouts that you asking this loco to go through.
A 2-10-4 needs big curves for reliable operation, no matter what the manufacturer says. What radius are your curves? What size are your turnouts? Where does it derail?
Andy is not the first, 50 years ago Paul Mallory had the same view. His quote “excelent trackwork is a must”.
Expecting large locos to handle tight curves is an invatation to disapointment.
I have a BLI C&O 2-10-4. It was my first steamer and it was going on my first layout that was more than a plywood special. I brought it home lubed it up and ran it around the layout for hours (anticlockwise) over the following weeks. Not a single derailment. I was patting myself on the back for my track laying skills.[:-^]
Down the road I was contemplating sticking down the track more permanently and thought I had better have a few hours under my belt running in the other direction (clockwise). First lap a derailment and then a few more[:O] I won’t go into the details but it was a real learning experience. Everyone of the spots I had a derailment was easily fixable. It took longer to find the exact cause, but once I did [tup].
Front,rear or anything else will not come off if the track has had its fine tuning. [:)]
Damn, it keeps coming bcak to track work. Batman, I found the same problem as you. On my layout, I can run the 2-10-4 clockwise all day, but not counterclockwise without problems.
Here’s two of my rookie mistakes. In the first one you can see the outer edge of the ties are not supported on the centre track. Everything worked fine going one way but not in the opposite direction. On close observation the lack of support on the outer edge was enough to throw my 2-10-4 off the rails. Everything else including my diesels went over this spot without derailing. An easy fix.
In this photo the problem is obvious. Three or four ties not supported caused problems for my steam engine. I don’t have that “I’ll fix that later attitude anymore” when laying track.
Everything works well in both directions now. But every last tie on my pike has something under it.
What most of us steam nuts do is add weight to the truck. A small piece of lead stuck with RTV or double stick tape works wonders. Another point to look at is lateral motion of the drivers. If the drivers are binding on the curves it would push the single axle pilot off the rail. If this is a BLI loco remove the bottom plate and look at the bearings for one that is not seated right. Make sure and triple check the wheel gauge on all the axles. Make sure the pilot axle is not bent. A bent axle even a slight hard to notice bend will reek havoc.
Kinks in rail can be hard to spot sometimes. Make a cardboard template of the minimum radius and go over every inch of track with it. NMRA gauge the track at every trouble spot.
I appreciate your comments. Your response, and the other responses, forced me to take an even closer look.
Here is the problem as best I can describe it. As I previously mentioned, my track is far from perfect. The problem points are always where two pieces of flex track join together and the track joint is not level but, rather, slightly raised. As a result, the engine rises up ever so slightly right before the track joint, then drops ever so slightly as it crosses the rail joint, kind of like an inverted V if you will.
The balky engine is a Bachmann Spectrum 2-10-4. I have two other 2-10-4 engines, both of which are 2-10-4 steamers from Broadway Limited Imports, and they both perform flawlessly, in part because the engines are so much heavier than the Spectrum.
As the Spectrum 2-10-4 reaches a fault in the track, always at a point where two pieces of flex track are joined and always right before a curve, the pilot track passes the rail joint OK remaining on the rails. But, the driver wheels then are on a slight incline causing the pilot track to rise slightly above the rails.&nb
Yes. Fix the hump at the joints. It is relatively easy to do. Either a tie used to fill the tie gap is too high and causing the hump or the rails need to have an expansion gap cut in. Soak the ballast if there is any and pull the ties out from under. Clean the remaining ballast up and slide the joiners onto one rail. Take a dremel and cut off wheel and cut a gap in and slide the joiners back. Sand down the filler ties until they slide under the rails without raising them and re ballast.
If not fixed eventually a six axle diesel will find the hump also. Another problem with small humps are long passenger cars. They tend to uncouple at humps faster than a derailment. Fixing the track will lead to a happy layout that you can enjoy with out frustrations.
Finding the fault is most of the battle. It is what we do to fix it is what wins the war.
A 32" radius should not be giving you derailment problems with a Bachmann 2-10-4. Even most brass ten-drivered locomotives with their tighter tolerances should be able to traverse a 32" with little or no problems.
Have you checked the wheel-set on the pilot truck for gauge? It could be they are slightly out of gauge and need some adjusting. If they are in gauge, then a small piece of flat sheet lead epoxied to the top or underside of the truck extension itself might work to weight the pilot truck enough to keep it on the track. I ran into that problem with one of my brass 2-10-2’s when I bought it, and the slightly extra weight kept it tracking very well. Also check where the truck is mounted to the frame. Are there any burrs in the mounting hole that are catching on the screw? If so, a slight routing out of the hole with a file will make it swing more freely.
And as a last resort, if all else fails, consider replacing the plastic Bachmann pilot wheel itself with a heavier metal one from NWSL.
I justed wanted to make sure that you were paying attention. [(-D]
Seriously though, you are correct and I was mistaken. It is a 2-10-2. [#oops] When Bachmann sent me this replacement engine, I marked it in my records as a 2-10-4 and the error has persisted. Sorry about that. It is a DMIR #508.
That is a very interesting suggestion. I will fix the humps in my track, but I like the idea of metal pilots and will look into the NWSL suggestion. Thanks.
I remove the springs on both leading and trailing trucks for two reasons. 1) On resonably well laid track, they are not usually needed. If you do have a track that acts up, as someone else pointed out, you can always glue a small weight to the track to assis in tracking. 2) And this is main reason and it all comes down to simple physics. Remember the phrase, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”? Which means, if a truck spring is pushing down, then it is also pushing up. And what does the upward pressure of the spring do? It slightly lifts the locomotive weight from the drivers. I have zero problems running with the truck springs removed and have found that all my locos, from the Spectrum 4-6-0s up to the Spectrum Heavy 4-8-2s and IHC 2-10-2s all pull more cars. From two or so with the 4-6-0 to three or four more with the 4-8-2s. Yes, it varies between wheel arangements but there is an improvement and no loss of tracking. Try it, you’ll like it.
I took Pete’s advice and fixed the humps and resolved a whole host of other track problems as well. I just spent 8 hours going over 162 feet of double mainline track. I eliminated several humps by removing and replacing faulty ties that I initially inserted under the rails to replace the ties I had cut off when adding rail joiners. In other cases, I re-laid the track at rail joints where the rails were uneven.
I also removed flex track in a couple of cases on curves and replaced it with new flex track after soldering two 36" lengths of flex track together. I had never soldered flex track together before, but I will never lay another curve without soldering 36" lengths together. What a difference! No kinks, perfect radius, unbelievable.
The bottom line is that my trackwork is 1000% better than it was before. No more derailments with my 2-10-2 running on either track in ei
That is fantastic news. The track is the foundation to the railroad. Having problems with a foundation is very bad for the whole structure of the railroad. You will be happier in the long run having good track work.
