I saw this on E-bay and have heard the tearm before about having a engine Quarted.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190093987594&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=009
Is it for setting the drive wheel gauge for steam engines? If it is I do need one. Last night my BLI U.S.R.A Heavy started derail. Today I checked the wheel gauge and did find one of the drive wheels a little tight. Drivers did fit in the gauge but flanges where against the inside of the gauge. From my rolling stock I found that if they are touching the outside they do not derail, inside they like picking stuff.
Is there a way to set the gauge with out this tool if that is what it does? I am worried about binding the drivers or not having the gauge straight all the way around the drive wheel. I am all so not in a hurry to pull another BLI a part! I am shoocked I got the BLI M1-A back togather and running. Talk about a pain in the coobose!
Cuda Ken
Will not help with a gauge issue but you may need it after re-gauging the drivers. It is for ensuring that the driver sets on a steam locomotive are exactly 1/4 turn difference from side to side. If they are not quartered, then there will be binding.
So if you re-gauge your driver by twisting, you will need to re-quarter it. But you may have other issues if it “suddenly” started to de-rail. Check your track first, real good.
It is a nice tool to have, if you are rebuilding model steam locomotives.
The ending price for the auction is a bit crazy, and the current MSRP is only $39.95, see:
http://nwsl.com/pdf%20prod%20list/pdf%20prod01.htm
It aligns the crank pins on both wheels on an axle.
NOTE: you need to do all of the axles on the same tool because of tool to tool variation, none are perfect.
No, you do not need one… yet. But, it sounds like you could possibly use a NWSL wheel puller/press, which is also much cheaper. It will allow you to adjust gauge without disturbing quartering. Go check out NWSL. It is model locomotive mechanic’s heaven. [:D] If you pull wheels completely you have then possibly created quite a job for yourself. Being a car mechanic, I think you can understand the following.
Quartering is supposed to mean that the steam locomotive drive wheels are one quarter of a circle out of phase with each other on each axle, thus preventing dead spots from cylinder thrust. In the model world, because it is really electrically powered, it does not matter what the exact degree of quarter is, as long as all pairs drivers are exactly the same. On a lot of models the quarter is not exactly 90 degrees. And on those, if you have to re-quarter one pair, or more, you will need to either build your own jig, or re-quarter all of them using the tool, or a jig. Also, the NWSL Quarterer will not fit ALL axles; example Athearn Genesis Pacifics and Mikados. This was real un-handy when these models suffered a lot of cracked gears.
N&W, and VGN, and most railroads as I recall, used a right leading quarter; that is the right side drivers were one quarter turn ahead of the left drivers. I believe Pennsy and somebody else used a left lead, but do not trust me on that, as I am totally not sure.
Lastly, I have found little issue with wheels gauged on the narrow side, but on long rigid wheelbase locomotives there can easily be a problem with wheels gauged on the wide side. I am not talking about ‘out’ of tolerance, but just on the wide side of the spec. The smaller the radius curve, or particularly the smaller the number of the turnout, the more likely the p
Virginian, thanks for the answer that I understood. I will all so check out the wheel puller as well. I have cleaned USRA wheels and found some junk of them that may have caused the problem. If it still derails I will look at the rails closer. If no problems there I will look at the engine again.
What I have found is the front truck is what comes off, not the drive wheels. It is a USRA Heavy 2-8-2. Any ideas and front trucks are not sprung.
Cuda Ken
pilot trucks are often not very heavy and have a tendancy to bounce up when hitting a flaw in the track. I don’t mean that your trackwork is flawed, rather any slight imperfection like a gap in the rail or at a frog. I have done 2 things that can work depending on the way the loco was built. One was to just add weight to the pilot truck. This is the easiest way and should help, if not eliminate the problem all together. The second is to mount a spring between the frame and the pilot truck. This spring exerts constant downward force and thus helps keep the pilot grounded (pun intended). This way can work even better than the weight but is alot more difficult to pull off. Remember, the pilot still needs to be able to pivot.
Any springing of pilot or trailing trucks takes weight off the drivers. I would advise against it. Adding weight to the truck frame may solve the symptom, but you haven’t cured the problem. If the wheels are in gauge, and the pilot truck is free to move side to side, up and down, and twist a little bit, it should track on good track with no problems, so the problem is likely track related. If the pilot truck won’t twist, open up the screw hole just a little, a round file is perfect; you don’t need much or the drivers would be derailing. Ideally trackwork should be flat at all points, but sometimes we lack perfection, or if you use superelevation your transition my be just a hair abrupt.