Other than the obvious of a 1 ounce MPC car between the engine and a sting of scale cars.
I recently tracked down a derailment of my American Model Toys '50s era passenger cars to the wheels being too far apart. They are not fixed to the axle, and there is about 1/16" of free play. When going over an O22 right hand switch in the straight direction, the right hand wheels approach the triangular “frog” between the straight rail and the curved rail. The outside wheels engage the plastic molded shunt that is intended to keep the car on the straight side of the switch. If the wheels are too far apart, the right hand wheel will ride up on the frog, and likely derail. I have tried gluing the wheels to the axle, with some, not 100% success. I noticed that other manufacturers have the wheels attached to the axles by pressing them over knurled parts of the axle.
In thesame area, track related; partial thrown switch, mis-aligned rail, sceanary, Where ever, wheel misalignment, truck pivot too tight, grimlins.
Most of the time it is grimlins
Sorry, this was the serious one. I’ve had dereailments from all of the above.
Jim
Actually Brainel has a good thing. He tightens the “slop” between the body of the car and the trucks. I do think that helps. Light cars, I stick lead weights inside.
Sprung trucks help eliminate some … joints where track is joined uneven causes some … bent area where pins enter … misaligned track … HEAVY HAND on that THROTTLE !!! LOL = [%-)] loose coupler connections … wobbly wheels … I could go on and on … lousey switches … too tight turning radiuses .
Bob.M,
Would proper sized washers help if put onto the axles, between the wheels and the trucks?
I Hope This Might Help,
Ralph
Thanks for your reply. I did try to fix it using different size washers, but you still have to leave some free play to allow the wheels to turn. With glue, (I used Duco Model cement) the axles turn in the holes in the truck sides. Some free play is needed there, but it does not increase the distance between the wheels. I expect the Duco won’t last long. I will have to find a better glue.
Outside of problems with track, here the the major causes of derailments:
1) The gauge of the wheel sets on the same truck. Here’s where you will get derailments going through switches. This is more of a problem when buying used trains where fast angle wheel sets have been replaced, ie: plastic ones for metal. Or with wear on the axles of metal postwar tracks, or with the truck sides getting loose over time.
The fix: Double check and make sure the wheel gauge of the wheels on a truck are identical. If you buy a bulk bag of fast angle wheels, or compare those of differing makers, you’ll be surprised to see the slight variations that can be there. Look at postwar trucks to check if wheels have been swapped… even postwar Lionel used a couple of different styles of wheel axles. Crimp the sides of staple side construction trucks.
2) The shape of the knuckle and the open space within the closed coupler. Although the knuckle coupler is basically the same design, they are quite different from company to company. Some makies of trains will run fine coupled to other same make cars, but will derail when coupled to cars from different makers. It is the shape of the space within the closed that will cause the cars to bind when going around curves. This can be a huge problem with the Industrial Rail trucks on tight radius curves, because also the coupler arm on the IR trucks is almost 1/4 inch longer than a Lionel, K-Line or MTH truck.
The BEST illustration of this is to take the loose (unattached to a train car) plastic truck of any Lionel car and couple it to an loose (unattached to a traIn car) Industrial Rail truck. Place them on the floor or a table and move them as if they were going around curve tracks and you’ll see how they can bind, because they don’t move as completely in one direction as they do th
I use 027 track of different radii and all 027 0r 042 switches.I put down my track with great care,even soldering over some of the joints to make them smooth.I can run complete trains backwards anywhere on my layout.About 80% of my rolling stock is running on sprung trucks.I have checked and adjusted the guage on all wheels.Still I have the occasional brain fart where I do something stupid,throw the wrong switch,not pay attention to what I’m doing,back up too fast when switching or just do the wrong thing.I think de-railments are just a necessary evil.
Ed
I did find out a Lionel 9400 series passenger car will go two feet up and then fall five feet to the floor and survive.
Ed
Thanks for all the hints, solutions and suggestions. I had forgotten about the binding couplers. Yes, I had to attack them with the Dremel.
Regarding your 4 switches in a row: Is this practice verboten ? If so, by whom? Is is a Lionel suggestion?
I have 5 in a row, all Lionel O-22, and the problem I have is voltage drop. The engines slow to a crawl, even stop when crossing the switches. At the risk of Topic Drift, is there an acceptable way to supply power to these? I may solder a wire inside the center switch if there is no better way.
I did find out a Lionel 9400 series passenger car will go two feet up and then fall five feet to the floor and survive.
Ed
I would have been like a bulged eye robot … froze in position … when that happened … LOL
That is just the way I probably looked.
Ed
Thanks Brain. I knew you had done a lot of research and found a fix for these problems.
I was having a problem with my Polar Express engine running off the tracks. The front wheels were coming off the track. Part of the problem was when it crossed the 90 degree crossover section. I don’t know if the front wheels may a tad bit loose but it seems it would jump off there and on one of the curves. I have my set running on the floor thru-out the house.
I also had a problem with the train un-coupling as well, the baggage car and dining car seemed to uncouple. I’m running all 8 passenger cars and I have the baggage car as the first one behind the tender. Unfortunately I found out real quick how much damage can be done. I was running it at full speed and it uncoupled. I was busy doing something else and didn’t hear it and of course the engine came around the back end of the cars and smashed into them at full speed.
The result is that the conductor lantern that Tom Hank’s character holds does not work anymore because that car flew of the tracks into a chair leg.
But I’ve been running the train at a slower speed and have not had a problem in several days.
Bob, having switches in a row is not forbidden, BUT switches are one place derailments are more prone to happen. In my case, my switches are on the main line and traveling through the curves is part of the main line. The trouble is not running a train forward, but backing up a train in reverse. This is why I drill out the rivets that hold trucks loosely to car bodies and replace them with a truss screw and lock nut.
Think of it this way: on REAL trains the couplers are attached the frame of the body of the train car. On our trains, the couplers are part of the truck. So when a train is pushed backwards, all the pressure is on the trucks. If the trucks have wobble from being loosely attached to the train car, there is room for play. When the train backs up into curves (especially on switches), those loose trucks tend to move upward on the back wheel (furthest from the coupler), thus cause that wheel moves upward from the track, causing it to derail.
Ollie, a couple of simple suggestions: Try putting either a small magnet somewhere on that front wheel chassis, Either that or a single 1/4 oz. lead self-sticking automotive tire weight… maybe even two of them. That should cure the problem - at least it has for me. You could even use a thick metal washer, attached with self-sticking carpet tape.
Also, a small rubber band wrapped around the coupler arm should cure your accidental uncouplings under load of a long train. Our forum pal Chief Eagles, uses orodontist rubber bands which he gets from his friendly neighborhood dentist… hopefully not because he’s having major dental work either.
I use small girl’s hair rubber bands which I have found at dollar stores in bags of 300-500… great deal for a buck. Not only are they black in color - so they don’t show at all wrapped around a coupler arm, but they make a super looking load for a gondola or hopper car (of course, Pola