Thank You All!!!

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Just a short THANK YOU to all who responded to my sprung truck derailing post. With your tips and suggestions, experience and knowledge, I was able to get the five cars I’ve had issues with on the track and running, as well as fixing four others without sprung trucks that had bugs too, and one turnout! Now currently a 19 car consist, plus caboose, pulled by an Athearn Genesis 4-6-6-4 Challenger #3985 UP up, over and back down 3% grades, #4 turnouts and 22" radius curves.

I’ve managed to do this without a track guage, but thanks to you all, knowing what to look for! Next RR purchases? Track gauge and truck tuner!

THANK YOU ALL FOR SHARING your knowledge, experience and ideas!!![B][D][tup]

Duane

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You’re welcome!

[;)]

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Duane,

Would you mind sharing what you found to be causing the problem(s)?

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I went into more depth in the original post, but a quick recap would be, and not necessarily in any order-

found a few wheels to be slightly too wide. I found this after paying close attention to derailments and marking each axle with a marker. Throughout the process of changing trucks around and wheelsets around, when a certain wheelset kept derailing, I started comparing closely to others that weren’t, and found them to be slightly wider. Also found a few (plastic) to be bent and wobbling down the way. Being bent obviously causing wide then narrow conditions with each revolution. These will become MOW and gondola loads.

With the trucks, I’m not sure yet there. Some of the derailing trucks, through trial and error, ended up on different cars and ran fine.?.? One truck was a different design in that it did not contain regualr coil springs, nor what I’ve seen here for leaf springs, but it was so loose and floppy that set is scrapped for now. Some had some apparent flashing problems, and even possibly a weak spring, but until I can clear my work table I am not attempting any repairs there. Simply swapped for rigid plastic.

And on some of my non-sprung cars I found out-of-gauge wheels (wide), and car bodies too low, shimming those with regular card stock from my super glue package.

One turnout, and I don’t remember the make, had an issue with some cars coming from the rail onto the point rail at the fixed, or riveted end, and the flanges either going up and over the point rail, or in-between the point rail, traveling then between the point rail and the stock rail, if that makes sense. Some measurements, and a keen eye, with the knowledge gained here that factory stuff can be out of gauge, found the fixed rail to become slightly narrow at the rivet end. That was fun, as I thought I could give the rail a slight bend and ended up popping it right out of four ties and bending it! Some work rebending, some super glue, and pressure applied with a screw driver tip, w

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I wanted to say also, I’ve read many times over the years about NMRA gauges, so I’ve known about them. However, I’ve always been under the impression that I didn’t really need one since A) I laid flex track and not hand laid, B) I use rolling stock and loco’s as they come out of the box or kit. What I did NOT know, which WAS LEARNED HERE, is that all of this new, fresh from the factory, out of the box stuff, can be out of gauge and not correct! This has been an eye opener for me!

So if anyone contemplating a real layout for the first time reads this, RR expense #1 should be an NMRA gauge, before anything is ever laid and ballasted, whether new, old, premade or hand laid!!!

Happy RR’ing! Duane

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Duane,

You’ve definitely gained some important skills with this project. The NMRA gauge really is as fundamental as you describe it. It’s the first thing I reach for when I have an issue that might be gauge related. And like you’ve found, the factory sometimes does produce parts that will make you shake your head when you discover them. The gauge is that important, but once you’ve got one, your experience shows that applying it to problems and critically analyzing the results to apply a fix gives a much more satisfying model railroad experience.

You’ll also find that checking new work you do - building a kit, replacing parts, shifting track, etc – all benefit from being inspected with the gauge. And even then, rolling stock and locos are a lot like track – What could go wrong? Plenty.

Just had a car today that wasn’t running well in a train I was making up in staging. Found a coupler askew and one truck somehow kinked by the mounting screw. I usually do better work than that, but it was a reminder that it does pay to inspect or at least test run equipment that hasn’t been on the layout for some time. I usually make up trains for the next ops session, then run them twice around the layout to verify good running during the ops session itself. Some people do a regular scheduled maintenance routine, but for me it just works better to do that sort of thing as I rotate cars onto the layout.

Just let folks know if you run run into something that’s not obvious at first. It’s kinda amazing all the subtle things that can go wrong with the interface between track and wheel… The less obvious ones can really get you shaking your head – or using language your mom wouldn’t be happy with unless she was in a biker gang. [:$]

To help me keep up my spirits when I run into tough problems to solve, I keep a fortune I got after a Chinese dinner. It reads "You can analyze

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Glad you were able to make the “fixes” needed. You will find a bunch of us on the forum who have been in the hobby for a long time and can often reach back in our memories to find a solution for a “today” problem.

I started in HO in 1960 when I was in college and away from home. My dad was a Santa Fe engineer and we had O gauge trains in the attic, but a dorm room doesn’t do well with O gauge so I ventured into an HO layout and never looked back. Old guys like me went through a lot of the trial and errors that have made HO easy to work with today, but you will still find items that went through manufacture with flaws undetected, along with today’s problems with command control, and other animals.

I have found at age 75 that the older you get the smarter you get with the hobby, but on the negative side, your fingers don’t work as well, and the brain reasoning power is a little reduced.

Bob

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I have had an NMRA gage for more than 20 years, and use flextrack. I rarely use it to check track gage, but can not count the number of times I have found wheelsets out of gage and a few times bent axles. I check every new car, loco, and replacement wheelset (changing from plastic to metal) and know I have saved myself a lot of grief over the years with checking before running. My secondary use of the gage is clearence checking; again, checking before running has saved a lot of problems.

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I find it interesting that sometimes putting the trucks on the opposite ends has made a difference for me a couple of times. I scratched my head about that one.