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5 Responses to HO Turnouts Derailments
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This has worked for me. Take the front wheels and flip them around by front to back. I had cars that derail. So I switch around the wheels. If that dont work, you could have debre in the rerailers,hope that works for you.
Jerry,
You could have several things going on here.
First, if the derailments only occur at the same turnout then the issue is probably with the turnout itself and not your tender. Using an NMRA standards gauge (which everyone should have), check that the rail spacing is correct through the frog & switch points. Check that the points are seated tight against whichever outside rail they are engaged with. Are the points sitting a bit higher than the other track? This also could be a cause.
If the derailments occur at most or all your #4 switches, then the tender is probably at fault. The wheel spacing could be slightly off. This also can be checked with the NMRA gauge. Are the wheel flanges ‘pizza cutters’, e.g. are they very sharp? If they are, they can ‘split the switch’ at the switch points causing the derailment. Substituting NMRA approved wheels or trucks can fix this unless the wheels are used for the engine’s electrical pick up (which is probably the case). If they are used for electrical pickup, there isn’t much you can do aside from grinding down the flanges ever so slightly which is something of an operation that only a pro should attempt. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Third (and perhaps the easiest fix of all) is that your tender is just too light. Add about an ounce or so of weight by installing metal nuts or lead fishing weights inside the tender. Stick the weights on the top of the tender with a strip of masking tape to get a rough idea how much weight you’ll need to add. If the tender is used for the engine’s electrical pick up, wrap or coat the extra weights with electrical tape or some other insulating material (like paint)so that they won’t accidentally case any short circuits when you install them inside the tender’s body shell. Secure with some sort of glue so they won’t shift about.
Finally, #4 switches are pretty sharp so your tender may actually be rubbing up against the cab of the engine or the rolling stock behind when making the curve. To determine if this happening, run the engine through the switch as slow as possible while looking straight down from above. If the tender is binding with the engine’s cab or rolling stock, a fix may to be to install a slightly longer draw bar between the engine & tender or a coupler with a longer shank at the rear of the tender. If you are using Kadee type couplers, finding & installing a coupler with a slightly longer shank is fairly easy.
Hope this helps,
Geof from the US
In my Opion The first problem you have is a no#4 Turnout, Second if the turnout is a Atlas the tolerance are to sloppy. When I started out I had atlas Code 100 NO#$4s I spent more time re railing cars then running them.( The Atlas code 83 turnouts are of better quality) That Said if your derailments are happing at the frog then the guard rail might have to be moved over closer to the stock rail 2,check your points they may be bent or not closing 3 check your gage between the points and frog they might be narrow gaged IF all elce fails check out this web sight and watch all the video’s so you can better understand what is really happening.—— I rarely have derailments on turnouts anymore
http://www.handlaidtrack.com/online-videos-a/164.htm
Best Regards Alan
Many of your contributors have some
serious issues with spelling and
punctuation. You would look better
if you took the many minutes to fix
your readers errors. Reading some of the comments, I wonder how some
of these guys have the brain power
to work on model railroads. Loujay, responding to a question about de-railments is a good example of poor writing skills.
Yes Anonymous I agree with you that a lot of people are in a hurry and don’t spell or punctuate correctly. Unfortunately, we can’t edit comments before they get published, but we can stop them from being published (which we don’t want to do unless they are in bad taste).
Although we do try and maintain standards, we do understand that this change in English usage reflects the modern world where people are in a hurry and where text messaging is impacting on writing skills. Also a lot of our readers come from different countries where English is not their first language or spelling is different eg. realise instead of realize, colour instead of color, modeller instead of modeler.
So Anonymous , we try to be tolerant and ask you to be tolerant too. The standard on this blog is much higher than what you’ll see on most Forums, chat rooms, Facebook, Twitter etc.
The important thing is people are interested in this wonderful hobby, and I wouldn’t want to discourage that.