OK, without spending any more money guessing... You've identified the offending cars. It may be the track as well, not sure. You're not sure if the cars, or the track, meet wheel and track gauge standards but some work and some don't. There is a wonderful little tool made for the MT couplers that has a track gauge and a wheel gauge, but its not required for this test. MT wheels tend to have a wide 'back to back' dimension on deep-flange wheels, compared to the rather sloppy track standards, or just plain variability on manufacture. They can also end up picking points rather easily. As my son says, the problem with standards is that everybody has their own. Two things to try.... Take one of the cars that regularly derails and run it through with your fingers on top of the car, and just 'feel' it roll through the track. If you're picking points, or the frog, you'll feel it. It may be only one end. It may be both. Take a car that works and do the same thing. What's the difference? I'll bet you can feel it 'hit' something. After that, pop off one of the offending trucks and roll it through with your fingers, holding it by the sides so you can determine what happens when it is forced to one side or the other of the rail. What does it do? What does a truck that doesn't derail do? You should be able to isolate specific spots on the track that you can 'feel' things happening. A car actually in a train will behave differently, and even behave differently on where it is in a train and how fast its going, but the finger test with the trucks doesn't lie. Then I think you can get quite specific about what it is hitting. Right now you're guessing, which is OK, but changing out all your wheels, or redoing your track, without doing this part can get expensive and frustrating. Let us know. That's one of the more complex pieces of track available in N and it doesn't take much out of it to produce a problem, but this is all fixable.
I hear that. Nearly every problem I have ever had has had a simple, cheap solution that doesn't involve buying anything or filing anything down etc.. It just takes awhile to figure out the problem. I've learned to never do anything until I'm absolutely sure that I know what the problem is.
I agree completely with Sandro. All of my early Model Power cars are now trackside sheds. I've had more problems with passenger cars than anything else. For a long time, I thought it was just their 85-foot length. Then I got two of Kato's specials, which ran flawlessly. It was the trucks on the earlier cars!
I did think about just replacing the Hoopers and yes they aren’t as nice as other cars, but they do already have MT trucks & couplers. I do believe that they just need the correct spacers and a couple of wheels. I have spacers on the way, thanks to Gary and less than $4 to replace just the mismatched wheels. So $4 to fix 8 hoppers is a lot more reasonable than $120+ for a new replacement set of 8. Now if I were to buy all new trucks, well that’s another story. As far as the looks and quality goes, I’m OK with it at this price and if I weather them I doubt I’d even notice the difference. After get everything together and test it out, I’ll let you know. I’d like to make another video with the MP hoppers going through the Xcrossing that is if I can figure out how to upload a little quicker. 3 hours is just too long. Well, I got to go back now.cool:
Uploading to youtube... ...is a bit painful if you're waiting and watching. I do it occasionally for my wife's business but have posted a few vids of my own. Who knew it would take so much time? I now just hit the upload button and when I come down in the morning (because I hit the upload button just before sleepytime-) boomfff- it's done. Mark
I thought of that, but the last time I did something like that the computer shutdown and screwed everything up. I think I was running some sort spyware program. I guess I could turn off the energy management stuff. Thanks Mark for the suggestion :thumbs_up:
I see a quick solution that i am surprised no one has spotted or suggested. Problem, You do need a straight before the Xover but you have no room to add one. Solution, Take the Xover and the short straight after it and Swap them.
I was wondering when someone would catch that.rolleyes: I did have that way, but the short piece is actually a KAT-20-043 Feeder track and that whole section including the #6 turnout was dead without it. And I know that there is Terminal UniJoiners, but I just think $4.00 for a joiner is outrageous especially with an unwanted connector on the end that I have to cut off. Actually I paid $8 apiece for the two that I have on my Loops through a LHS. That’s just me and to me it’s one more disadvantage of Unitrack. Plus, I’m not ready to start drilling holes and soldering wires to the track because I’m still not sure if I’m going to keep this layout. The one thing I love about Code 80 is you can just solder a wire anywhere on the track or pull out a saw and cut a gap anyplace you want. You can add or replace turnouts anywhere you want without taking half the layout apart. Anyway, I know the problem is with the spacers and I’m not just guessing anymore. The spacers weren’t installed and they definitely are needed not only to rise up the body but also to center the trucks. It’s probably why they ended up on eBay and it has nothing to do with being Model Power because they have MT trucks and couplers. I don’t know that you can really even call them Model Power anymore. And I’m not buying the track problem either because every other car I got including a small fleet of Bachmann’s run through the crossover just fine and I’ve also backed 11 cars through without any problem. The layout is too small to have many more cars than that. I have an 11 car max because that is all that will fit in my longest siding except for the passenger cars which are even longer.
You might like to check out my quick tutorial on Working with Video for TB Contests. I explain how to use simple tools to improve video presentation and reduce upload times.
Hello Pete, and other. I have some experience with Truck's change: I changed Atlas to MT trucks with Intermountin Metallic wheels at Intermounntain DumpCars. All works OK. King pin was sawed to fit for MT. MT truck has very short arm and very flexible knuckle coupler, than Atlas. Therefore this car can be pulled by long base or long-back cars without derailments at heavy curves as in case of truck-mounted as well as in case of body mounted couplers on it. As to FoxWalley: They have 3 different sizes of axles But FoxWalley is too thin and can fall into Atlas's C55 frogs of turnouts. This can activate "Accordeone effect" in whole train, and can derail high cars. Therefore i decide to discard FoxWalley, and use Atlas or Intermountin metallic wheels. FoxWalley is too beautiful to discard them at all! Therefore: FoxWalley can used only in 2 cases: 1) You have long trucks in cars (as in passenger cars) 2) You have short trains with cars with low height (like Dump-Cars) -------- Vadim
The washers worked Ok, I got some washers from maxairedale (Thanks again Gary) and I installed them on all 8 MP hoppers along with 2 sets of replacement wheels and tested them out. I got to say I’m really happy with their performance. I even added 8 additional cars to be sure. I was going to add some weight, but I don’t think I need it. The single loco had a little trouble starting, but after it got going it was pulling just fine. I filmed it with my camera and edited it as Mark Watson suggested. Not such a good job, I might add. It came out really bad and I'm sorry about that. I guess I just need a little more practice, but it looks great on my computer using the original. It has been running for 3 hours nonstop crossing back and forth. I’m planning on adding more cars and trying that out for a while, but I’ll need to add another loco I think. Anyway it’s getting late and I got to get up early for work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwGZH_4pVR4
Looks great to me! Sure the quality will be a little better in the original, but I bet the upload time of 10 minutes or so, compared to 3 hours, was worth it. :thumbs_up::thumbs_up:
Yes, it was worth it, thanks. It was more like a ½ hour but definitely better than 3 hours. At least I got to go to bed on time. I was a little confused at the end because I didn’t know how to finish it. I don’t remember what all the options were, but I picked run on my computer. There was one email option, maybe I should have picked that one.
The problem is not the Fox Valley wheels, but the Atlas turnouts. I have no problems with them running on Peco turnouts or my suctom hand laid turnouts.
Classic case of which came first...the chicken or the egg. Atlas turnouts have been out there a heck of a lot longer then the FV wheels. Is it FV's...or anyone elses contention that ALL those Atlas turnouts out there already on layouts throughout the world should be torn out and Peco turnouts installed..just because FV stuff wont work on it properly? :tb-wacky: Of the many facets of model railroading...track...including turnouts...are the one factor that remains constant to each of us. We buy new locos, rolling stock...and even wheelsets...yet manufactures DONT take into account the track their stuff will run on. People are NOT going to tear up their trackwork that they have been running for years...and replace it...just to run some manufactures product that DIDNT take into account the design of the BIGGEST seller of track. :thumbs_down: JMO...thnxs .
That looks great, Johnny. The cars are running through those switches like mercury. Nice video, too. Thanks for letting us know.
Does that look fine or what? Me thinks you got it. I thought I hear a sigh of relief from my vantage point in Big Bear Lake.
