Hello,
Recently I got a Marklin H0 big boy locomotive and a small C layout. I have some Walthers and Athearn wagons that look awesome with the loco, however it tends to derail on the curves. It seems the issue are the wheels.
Any suggestion of wheels that I can use in Athearn and Walthers wagons to run smoothly in Marklin layouts?
Thanks!
Welcome, your derailment problems really shouldn’t be related to too small a radius, as the Big Boy would encounter troubles long before the rolling stock (wagons). Metal wheels will always help, but may not be the the single solution. Make sure that the trucks move freely and you have no binding on the coulplers. I’m not familiar w/ Marklin’s Big Boy or it’s coupler swing and tender truck arrangement. They may be designed to run on rather tight radius and this may tranfer problems on coupler swing of the “wagons” being pulled. I would start w/ wheel replacement and possibly adding some weight as the cars may tend to be somewhat light. Loosen the truck screws, you can allow one to be quite free to “rock” loosly and loosen the other only to the point where there is no “real” wobble". this allows the car(wagon) to track over uneven spots and to keep the wheel treads on the rails.
Not sure what couplers you have, but recommend changing to Kadees, Horn hook and other varieties (Euopean types) can place unwanted side forces on the coupler in turns.
Maerklin track is not totally to NMRA standarsds if I recall correctly, but to NEM standards. It may be that the wheel profiles and flange depths of the Athearn and Walthers wagons (freight cars in our parlance) are not suited. I had thought that Maerklin or Trix made “European-ized” replacement wheels for American NMRA standards rolling stock.
It might be that adding some weight to the American freight cars would make them track a little better and be a bit more forgiving of the NEM track standards.
If you just push the cars on the layout with your finger and let them roll, do they still derail? If not then the cause of the derailment is almost certainly due to be coupled to a huge tender that likely sends its rear coupler to far off the center line for the cars to handle. I have no ready solution to that unless perhaps a Maerklin freight car would always be coupled to the locomotive itself.
Dave Nelson
Hello,
Adding some weight did help in some cases. In others, no. The ones that are still derailing are the ones with plastic wheels. Mounting a marklin truck was the perfect solution, until I found out they can not be purchases online.
I ordered some kadee wheelsets. Hopefully, it will solve the issue.
Jaczel Jimenez
Costa Rica.