I AM UPSET TO FIND OUT THAT THE BEAUTIFUL ATHEARN SD-50 12 AXLE U.P. TRAIN WILL NOT RUN ON MY TRACK DUE TO THE RADIUS PROBLEM. MY LAYOUT HAS MANY TURNS AND ALL, BUT THERE ARE LIKE THREE SECTIONS THAT ARE TOO SMALL. I AM SO MAD NOW! THE GUY I PURCHASED THIS LAYOUT FROM HAD DONE THIS WORK. TWO OF THREE OF THE TURNS ARE IN MY MOUNTAINS AND I THINK IN ORDER TO FIX THAT I WILL HAVE TO COME THROUGH THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN WHERE ITS HIDDEN, BUT AS FOR THE INSIDE LAYOUT I AM LOST. THIS MAKE ME SO MAD NOW. I AM SO TEMPTED TO JUST START FROM SCRATCH AND BUILD A NICE 5x12' I HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT IN A LAYOUT MAGAZINE. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY EASY FIXER UPPERS? OR IS THERE ANYONE IN EASTERN CONNECTICUT WHO CAN ASSIST ME IN PERSON? PLEASE HELP OR KILL ME!! LOL I AM GOING TO TRY AND POST PICS THROUGH THAT RAILIMAGES.COM SO YOU GUYS AND GALS CAN GET A VISUAL. THANKS BIG AL
I assume you meant say 6 axle instead of 12 axle. Are you sure it is a 15" and 18" radius? I don't know who made your SD50, but I'd think it would be able to negotiate some pretty sharp curves....even though it might look kind of funny doing it. Keep in mind I'm a rookie here, but would it be possible for you to put easements in the curves where you're having problems? Maybe that would help you out??
Welcome to our happy family here on the TrainBoard Big Al! Let me guess that the guy laid the three curves like an "S" curve with NO straight track where one curve stopped and the next curve started going the other way? If that is the problem, then try just your engine alone running slowly. Now do not go in there fast enough to derail the engine! Go slowly! Tie a string onto the coupler, so when the engine should get into a curve that is too tight, and looses contact, you can quickly turn power off and slowly pull the engine back only an inch or so with the string. This should be enough to restore contact, see? Try to see where the engine stopped, and mark it. ( I have just put a pencil beside the track, etc. ) Then reverse the power, and gently pull the string to keep it from getting under the wheels as you increase the speed a little bity-bit. The engine should just back out of the curves and come back to you. Now start the engine from the other direction with the string again dragging behind while the engine runs slowly through the curves toward the place where it "died" before. (I think the engine has 3 axles on one truck, and three more on the other truck, which would make a total of 12 wheels, but we know what you mean. The middle pair of wheels on each truck are made with no flanges, so the engine will go through #4 switches, so it "could" sometimes also make it through a 15" radius curve slowly.) When you get to the point where the engine gets into trouble again, you may find it is almost the same spot as before! It may be another spot before the engine gets to the original spot. Two different fixes: 1. IF it turns out to be the "same" spot coming from both directions, then lay a sheet of carbon paper on the rails covering the spot, but with the carbon UP! Lay a new sheet of typewriter paper on top of the carbon paper, and tape it to the rails on both ends, so it wont move. Use a small roller, like a small medicine bottle, lip stick cap, or small water class, and roll it along the rails pressing down with one or two fingers to make a "transfer" of the carbon to the white paper. Now tape the white paper with the rail marks (on the UP side), on a flat surface like a table, board etc. Carefully sit the engine on the paper and align the trucks as near on the lines as you can. Get a magnifying glass and look carefully at the trucks where the coupler has swung over to one side. Is the coupler shank against the side of the shell? Just a little filing here will do wonders for relieving a binding/derail problem. But, also check the front of the truck side frame to see if it is hitting the shell. Here, you may have to file a little off the truck side frame, and maybe a bit off the inside of the shell to get a little more clearance. Now check the other side of the shell to see if the rear of the truck side frame is hitting the shell or a fuel tank there. Again, a little filing can make a lot of relief. Now, do the same thing to the other truck. NOTE that the side frames will touch the shell at an angle, so try to file so the material removed will match that angle. Do the same on the inside of the shell. Try to get it to work without having to file a notch in the shell that could be seen from the outside! Vacuum out all the filings, and try the engine again, running slowly. You may have solved the whole problem, if the engine makes it past the point where it first stalled, and goes all the way to the point where it stalled when coming from the other direction. It doesn't need to go beyond that, because you already know it will go the rest of the way. 2. BUT, if the engine still stalls in the curves, DO NOT cut on the shell any more. No need to ruin a good engine, see? You look at the section between the two marks you made on the curve. Several things can be done here yet. But first, you will have to tell us how the track is fastened to the roadbed. If it is glued, nailed, screwed down, or maybe actually spiked on individual rails like we did on the old Tru-Scale wood roadbed. You may have to call the guy who made the layout. You can email me direct if you like, or post it here and I'll go on, and other people may also have fixes that will work too. All is not lost yet, the fat lady has not even begun to sing!
HEY THANKS FOR THE ADVICE IN ADVANCE. WHAT I AM GOING TO DO IS GO TO RAILIMAGES.COM AND LOG AND THEN POST PICS OF MY TRACK AND WHERE THE TIGHT SPOTS ARE. SEE THIS IS WHAT I DID TO FIND OUT IF IT WOULD RUN, I TOOD ONE OF THE SMALLER TRAINS I HAVE WHICH IS A NEW YORK CENTRAL 6 AXLE (BTW YES I MEANT 6 AXLE INSTEAD OF 12 IN FIRST POST) AND GENTLY PUSHED IT THROUGH THOSE AREAS AND IT JUST CAME OFF BECAUSE I FELT HOW THE RADIUS WAS TOO TIGHT. THE TRACK IS NAILED IN ROADBED WHICH THE ROADBED IS NAILED TO PLYWOOD. I TRIED TO EASE ONE CURVE BY MAKING IT A LITTLE BIGGER INSIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, BUT WAS NOT BIG ENOUGH TO ACCOMPLISH. I AM SO FRUSTRATED ON THIS. LET ME GET THE RAILIMAGES.COM TO POST THE PICS SO YOU CAN HAVE A VISUAL OF WHAT I MEAN. ILL GET BACK TO THIS BIG AL
Sometimes reality can be a harsh mistress in model railroading, and one of those harsh mistress's is "minimum radius". I bought an HO brass Royal Hudson for lots of money and when I got it home, I couldn't run it around the first layout I had as it couldn't do the curves. You can bet your bippy that I learned about "minimum radius's" real fast. Sounds like you have as well. If its a lot of hassle to modify your existing layout, then you might want to start from scratch.
Let me study your photos awhile Big Al. I think I see a way, but It might not work for all the places you have marked off. Go ahead and work on the engine for now. Is this the only engine that will not negotiate these curves?
HELLO WATASH THIS IS IS SO COOL BEING ON A TRAIN FORUM FOR REAL!! LOL I FEEL LIKE I AM IN A GLEE CLUB FROM HIGH SCHOOL OR SOME KIND OF COMPUTER TRAIN GANG!! LOL ANYWAY I ALSO BOUGHT ANOTHER 6 AXLE ENGINE AND I WANT TO RUN THEM I LIKE THEM MUCH BETTER. MY NEXT PURCHASE IS GOING TO BE THE UP DD40X BIG BOY 8 AXLE. AS SOON AS I GET THE RAILIMAGES ACCOUNT I WILL START TO POST ALL MY PICS OF MY LAYOUT SO FAR SO VISUALS CAN BE POSSIBLE.
A word of warning.....if you're having trouble getting a 6 axle loco to run on your layout then there's pretty much no way an 8 axle loco will run on it (unless they take the flanges off of the middle wheels.....but I don't really know much about that loco so I don't know if they do that or not).
We've got the Bachmann DDA40X round 15" curves. Looks very silly. Body overhangs by miles! Doubt if you can do it coupled to anything. But it did go round!
