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Derailing Locomotive
Marion sent in this question:
“My husband gifted me with a wonderful BLI HO loco that won’t stay on the track. Our other locos have no problem. Others, who have the same loco, are having no problem, apparently. We have adjusted track, etc., and still have the problem. Some of the wheels are really small, but, again, others don’t seem to be having the problem. HELP!”
4 Responses to Derailing Locomotive
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Check the wheel gap with a certified NMRA gauge. The flanges might be too narrow. I checked mine and found my wheel gap was to narrow. After gapping everything worked great. If that doesn’t work, contact BLI at their website.
I’ve been in the hobby for some 65 years now and have painted brass locos professionally which requires total disassembly and reassemblly. To reset the GAUGE of loco wheels can be tricky if you don’t know what your doing. Don’t know if your loco is steam or diesel and also don’t know if your loco is still under warranty but unless you really know what your doing I suggest you contact BLI on their web site and make arrangements to send it back to them. More than likely they’ll fix it for nothing because it possibly is a manufacturing issue. They take some time but others in my RR club have had good luck dealing with BLI. If you have any other questions I’ll check back here in a couple of days to answer you.
You don’t say where the loco comes off the track, or even whether it’s always the same place(s). If it’s on plain track, you need to check the track gauge, straightness, crosswise level & lengthwise level, especially at track joints, even if other locos seem to be coping. If it’s at turnouts/points/switches or crossings, you need to check the gaps between the rails & check rails & the back-to-back measurement of each of the loco’s wheel sets, together with the tread width, flange thickness & flange depth against those of your other locos and the width & depth of the flangeways of your switch & crossing work. If that doesn’t get you anywhere, you could ask the manufacturer for guidance.
In addition to the other suggestions, I will add: carefully look over all the wheels to assure that there is no damage, such as chipped flanges, cracked treads and that they all run true, no bent axles, warped wheels or off center or out of square axle holes and so on. Although BLI produces high end stuff, your loco could be a maverick or have suffered damage somewhere along the way.