So, when I pinned down and otherwise finished most of the trackwork and track wiring for the Lignite Subdivision, I discovered that, in one spot, my Williams Dash 8 (the UP 9449 one) consistently derailed under certain conditions. Those conditions were that it was at a high speed and that it was traveling North (on the Subdivision route) whilst facing forwards. If it was at a lower speed or going the other way, nothing. Here’s the really weird part: it’s just that section which is O42. I’m not quite sure what’s going on. Then, too, the horn is acting weird. Basically, the horn works fine when the locomotive is moving. It does not blow when the locomotive is stationary. The real odd thing? When I blow the horn with an AAA battery, it works just fine! I’m using a Lionel 1033 transformer; the whistle/horn control on it works consistently for my 1990 Lionel SD18 and even for a really junky Postwar Era whistle tender (I think it’s from 1949, but I don’t remember for sure). There’s a reason that I’ve been calling that Dash 8 the Rent-A-Wreck–it’s always got something wrong with it (and, in the Subdivision’s storyline, it was indeed leased from the UP).
Have a similar problem with my Legacy MoPac Mikado on my Atlas bridge: runs one way just fine at any speed. The other way? It derails at any speed. No idea why despite lots of time investigating. So I run it the one way only.
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I won’t have to worry about it too much, there’s already a speed limit for Menardsville (because of the curve and the junction) but I want to have an unconditionally reliable railroad…