Hi, I have a Micro Trains Ortner hopper that for most of its life it has sat in one location on my layout because at most every switch (turnout) it would pick the points and derail. All the switches are Peco Code 80 Insulfrogs, short and medium, the shorts are used in the yard and inside some of the customers. The track is Code 80 Flextrack from various manufactures. It does not matter if the car is being pulled or pushed through the switch, it derailed :no:. Some of the switches are as old as the layout and others are newer. All of the switches have been installed and in use for a minimum of 17 months. The switches in question tonight are in the yard. As I was moving the car in question this evening from where it had been spotted in the yard for the last 18 months to another of the yard tracks, and as normal it picked the points of one of the switches as it was push through a series of switches. This just happened to be a switch that I had installed without tapering the points. So my first attempt to solve the problem was to file a taper on the points. This done I again attempted to push the car through the switch. Same results. Now I realize that this is short lightweight car so using a five-finger crane I lifted the car off of the track and started to do a visual inspection. My first thought that the trucks might not be pivoting smoothly. This was not the problem since as I rocked the car side to side the trucks moved easily from side to side with just the weight of the truck-mounted coupler. Next I inspected the car body for indication that the wheels may be rubbing on it and found nothing. While looking at the wheels I noticed that they (factory installed) were the ones with the small flanges. After a few minutes of searching I was able to locate the jewel case and by luck there was a set of wheels with larger flanges. Now I know I’m going to hear some screams here, :huh: but after switching out the wheels for the ones with the larger flanges the car now goes through the switches without picking the points (at least in the yard with nothing but Peco shorts). Now I know that this sounds like I might be advocating using the larger flanged wheels, but I am not. In fact I have no opinion on the topic :rolleyes2:. In my case with this one car it is the fix that worked. I do not know how many other cars that I have that may have the smaller flanged wheels installed since I was never concerned about the flange size as I took the car out of the package. If I remember correctly, for a while MT installed the smaller flanges routinely and supplied the larger flanged wheels just in case. I do admit that most of my cars do have the larger flanged wheels on them, because of the time frame that I purchased them. I have to say for a year and a half I have been disappointed in the car in question, and was about to band it from the layout because of something (no pun intended) small like the flange size. I just wanted to pass on my experience with this adventure; maybe it will help someone else. All is fun on the GD&R again. :w20z6q: Gary
You won't get any arguments from me. Smooth and reliable operation is my top priority. (Second to that is my budget!) I'll spend extra money and time on different wheels when I have exhibition-level rolling stock and have eliminated all plastic animals and people from my layout. (In other words, probably never).
