Last year I received a Bachman Spectrum SD45 from a friend who was moving and taking a break from the hobby. The engine is almost new had only been ran a couple of times on N-track modules. I previously dabbled in HO, around the tree at Christmas mostly. Being an experienced scale modeler of vehicles/aircraft I felt pretty confident and decided to put together a “operating diorama” layout to display N-scale trains. It is a small loop with a 3 car siding where a coal loading area will be built. I don’t have the radius info on hand, but I used atlas track and the width between straightaways of the loop is 1’ 8". It doesn’t look bad and I would consider it fairly plausable in an industrial area. The SD45 runs great on it, smooth and quiet. When the cars start loading up that’s when the problems start. At about 5-6 cars the engine wanted to pop the lead car off the track going into the curves, especially if it was a light hopper or flatcar. I found that the coupler on the engine (still has the old style “c” couplers) was extending the front of the lead car and causing it to derail. I played around with it and found that by removing the spring from the engine coupler, it would give it more side-to-side clearance and not exert a ton of pressure on the lead car in the corners. Fixed the going forward issue…BUT, now the engine coupler is “dead” and is useless backing up or in other switching situations. It seems the way the coupler is mounted on this Bachman (far to the rear and on the body shell) is causing all sorts of problems. When I get to a certain amount of cars, usually about 8, the engine will derail in the corners if I go over a certain speed. I looked at the engine wheel flanges, man are they tiny! I figure they look good standing still, but don’t make a good platform for the size of N-scale, at least on small layouts. I have an old Bachman GP40 engine from when I was a kid and tried it out on the layout. It run
I’m in HO myself, but it sound like the curves are really too tight for this engine. If the couplers are stressed all the way over, it’s because the engine is turning to tightly in the curve. The trucks may have enough play to negotiate the turns, but if the body hangs over too far you won’t be able to keep cars attached.
Do you have any cars with “Talgo” trucks, the ones with the couplers attached to the trucks rather than the car body? These are non-prototypical, but they allow you to use tighter curves because the couplers are always following the track rather than the car. I don’t do N, so I’m not familiar with what’s available. If you’ve got one Talgo-equipped car, you could put it behind the engine and the rest of the train should fall in line.
I agree with MisterBeasley, It sounds like your curves are too tight. Is it to late to make them a little wider?
The Engine is diffinatelyto big for your radius. As much as you may enjoy that paticular style of power, maybe finding a 8 wheel engine that is of your liking. To continue trying to solve a normal problem with tight turns, change power and start railroading. Your GP40 proved that it lies in your power unit.
This loco has body mounted couplers that can be swapped out to Micro-Train (knuckle) couplers. Use the 1015-1 (preassembled) coupler. This could improve your coupling issues.
Trouble is that you will now have to accommodate knuckle couplers – which will not work with Rapido couplers. You can address this in one of two ways:
-
Convert all your freight cars to knuckle couplers. It’s the most extensive and expensive route to go, but it will improve your operations.
-
You can create a ‘transition’ car by installing a knuckle coupler at one end of a freight car and leave the other as a Rapido coupler. This will be a less costly route, but you will always have to run this particular car behind the loco.
Overall, the SD-45 should be able to deal with tight curves. I’d also check the wheel gauge on the loco.
Your best bet is to dump the Rapido couplers and go with knuckle couplers. MT makes a conversion kit for virtually any N scale loco or car made. It costs a bit of money, but I’ve never, ever had a problem with MT couplers or trucks in N scale, ever. Now, the Accu-mate couplers that Atlas uses are garbage. Go with Micro-Trains. They work like magic.
Your first item is to replace the Crapido coupler with MTL. Go to the MTL website & get the conversion cthat is correct for your cars/locos. They make the best trucks & couplers for Nscale trains.
The second thing is to replace your trains. One way would be to run Athearn/MDC old timers & steam. You can get an excellent Consolidation 2-8-0 & decide between 50 ft Overland or shorter Overland cars. You can get an assortment of 1880-1920 era freight cars.
Your curves are too tight for large equipment. I’d get GP or F style units to replace the SD45. Atlas, Kato, Intermountain, MTL, & LifeLike make good models that will fit your pike.
You are invited to bring your questions over to the Nscale forums at Trainboard or Atlas. You will find a talented group of Nscalers there! It may be easier than sorting out the Horribly Oversized posts in this Forum!
Micro-Trains is not the “N scale side of Kadee”, they are a completely independent company that was “spun off” from Kadee.
That bit of info, however, doesn’t address your main problem. Converting to Micro-Trains couplers will solve most of your problem. If the cars are in the <60’ range, and you use truck mounted couplers, you should be good. Longer cars are not going to be happy directly behind a 6 axle diesel on 10" radius curves…
Another fix is to correctly weight the cars. Somewhere here on the MR site you can find the guidelines. Properly weighted cars track much better, as your experience with the light hoppers and/or flat cars derailing easier demonstrates. That may help prevent the derailment at speed, but unlikely, since its the loco that’s chunking. Does the loco derail at the same speed w/o any cars? If so, slow down, cause there’s nothing you can do about the physics.
You don’t need to get a new train. The Spectrum SD45 is a fair unit. A shorter wheelbase loco wouldn’t hurt, but you’ve already seen that the SD45 can make it around the loop, so its pretty much a matter of fine tuning. The experience you can gain in doing this will be invaluable, experience that “getting a new train” will circumvent.
Using an SD45 on 10" radius with body mounted couplers isn’t the greatest for operration. If you do convert to Micro-Trains couplers; get the longer shanked ones. They will allow more play with the left and right motion on a tight curve. It may not look the best; but it will give you better performance.
If your running a Sd45 on a 10" radius curve with knuckle couplers you should be fine. I run a Atlas SD35 and a SD9 on a 9" radius with no problems as of yet. I only have 6 cars so I can’t speak for long trains. My SD-35 has accumate couplers and my SD-9 has MTL couplers.
What code is your track?
-dekruif