I have a American Flyer 283 Steamer Locomotive whose pilot trucks insist on jumping the tracks around the cormers. [:0] I’ve tried to make sure the wheels are the correct distance apart, and they do seem to be looser on the axle than other wheels on my other locos. I’ve seen locos that have a spring on the rivet between the mounting bracket and the actual truck, I assume put there to keep a downward pressure on the truck. is this a common fix for “wayward” pilot trucks, or should I even think about that as a possible alternative? Any other ideas?
Thanks, Jim E.
Jim, I have had similar problems with a pre-war Lionel 2-4-2 ; one of our forumites has successfully experimented with ‘bracing’ the truck with a plastic shim. I’m going to try this.
Another fix is to add some extra weight to the pilot trucks. I had a fried that glued some washers on and painted them black. Not the most attractive fix, but it worked pretty well.
This has a 4-wheel pilot truck, right? I don’t have any information about the 283’s design. But I’ll tell you what I did to my Lionel 773 to keep its pilot truck on O27 track. If your locomotive has a similar arrangement, you may be able to adapt my fix:
The truck is pulled by a link between its center and a point on the locomotive frame over the truck’s front axle. This link swivels to the inside of the curve through such an angle that there is considerable sidewise force on the truck, tending to derail it. I removed the link and replaced it with a rigid tongue that extends from the truck to a new pivot on the locomotive frame to the rear. The pivot location is critical to steering the truck so that it is tangent to the track at its own location on the curve. (To make room for the tongue, I had to remove some hardware intended to support the rear of the pilot truck when the locomotive is lifted off the track.)
Does any of this resemble your American Flyer locomotive?
Doug, Lionel 2-wheel pilot trucks are designed with the tongue arrangement that I adapted for the 4-wheel truck of my 773. But Lionel persisted in making the tongue too short. Try putting the locomotive on a sharp curve and see whether the pilot wheels are not actually oversteering, to the inside of the curve. If so, the fix is obvious–extend the tongue to a point farther back on the locomotive frame.
That’s a better fix to check, Bob. Thanks!
Thanks for all the tips. I messed around with it for awhile again yesterday. I think the major problem was one wheel that was sliding around on the axle. I “re-gauged” it and put a tiny drop of super glue on it to keep it there. It stayed on track for the test runs, but as you all know, it won’t act up unless I have a full consist going in a hard-to-reach area of the layout. [censored] Oh well, that’s the fun of having a problem and finding a solution, right? Now if I can just get that sticky e-unit to work…
Jim E.