Morning all, I got out a box of a dozen recently aquired coal hoppers done up in Clinchfield this morning to see how a long (for my layout) train was going to look. What a mess! Everything looked ok at first glance but I could never get more than two times around without a derailment or two, uncouplings or just a plain old trainwreck! I came to the conclusion that the wheel sets on these cars are either worthless or worn. The flanges are quite small compared to a lot of my car fleet and I suspect they came that way. Two questions: Should I replace the wheels or just put completely new truck/wheel sets on them. I'll just do all of them to have everything uniform and with the same amount of wear. Second, what brand makes good quality without breaking the bank? The main line is code 100 flex track and there will be a large addition of code 83 in the next several months. Source for these parts would also be appreciated. Thanks. Rick H.
Can the derailment sites be pinpointed? Or just anywhere? Track gauge? Ballast high or where it should not be? Wheel sets in gauge? Before investing in replacements, try checking everything which might be causing these headaches.
First is to always, always check wheel gauge on new equipment before you even put the cars on the track. Period. Full stop. Then, as you are preparing to set them on the track, remember to check couplers. Height...sag....if non-prototypical Kadees, check the trip pin for clearance...if low, two needlenose bends them up...they WILL catch on diverging rails at switches, or at grade crossings or diamonds. First!
You didn't say which brand of cars you have,I would check the mentioned ideas above first then if it turns out you do still wish to change out the wheels Intermountain makes some quality metal wheel sets you can buy in bulk ,100 axels per box. That's 25 cars per box.
After you have checked out the gauge and couplers thoroughly, check for proper three-point suspension. PO (Previous Owner) may have tightened the truck screws fully down, making the car "rigid" (and maybe why he/she sold them off?). One truck should be fairly tight...loose enough tho pivot, but not rock side to side. The other needs to be somewhat loose, and that's a level of looseness you have to determine on-site. Really badly cross-leveled track needs more play. Really good cross level, less so. Dave (Oh....would be nice to know brand of car....and are the trucks sprung...plastic or metal...and they probably are more to-scale flanges, not pizza cutters, and they should work...have you checked for extremely filthy treads? That will make them derail also...)
They are AHM cars, I had a 25 or so but the lady I bought them from wanted to get some back to donate to a couple of museums which I was happy to go along with. She's been selling off her late husbands' collection the last year or so after letting it sit since 1992. I think I got very lucky but a lot of it needs work which is fine by me. I enjoy refurbishing these things. There are basically three bad spots on my layout, only two of the cars seem to have a problem but it is consistent. Other cars just keep on going. I notice the same thing with some of the locos, a few have spots they don't like while the rest keep right on rolling. I haven't checked to see if everything is in gauge, a habit I need to start practicing with everything. Ballast is not a problem, there is none yet in these spots. One issue I have here is that about half of everything has hook/horn couplers while the rest have Kadees. I need to convert to all one coupler but haven't decided which one to use. Recommendations? Curve radius should be fine, it goes from one side to the other of a 3'8" sheet cut down from a 4x8 sheet. I used flex track for most of this but there are 12" sections mixed in as needed. Basically I just used what I had as there was a big box of track and I didn't see a need to buy more at the time. I was careful to keep a constant radius in the curve and all the track is firmly attached to a base. The base plywood sheet is flat. It tried to warp on me but I was able to get ahead of it and keep it straight. It is in a climate controlled environment. I'll look into all these suggestions and appreciate them. all things I had not considered until now. Rick H.
Holy Smokes. 12" radius mixed in? I have some old Atlas 12" radius...used for trolleys or Docksiders ONLY. The gauge isn't so much the issue (unless you have old fibre-tie flex track and it's been wet). Cross-level is very important. Use a small bubble level across the rails. Dave
I think he meant to imply 12" sections of straight snap track. Not 12" radius. Though of course I don't think you can get 12" sections Only 9".
Well, I hope you are correct. If not, that could be part of his headaches. Also, the more small sections, the more joints. Which those can also contribute to derailing.
I have got to learn to stay off the computer after a certain hour at night! I meant to say 9" sections of track, not 12 and no not 12" radius. That really would be a problem! I used them because I had them and they fit in the space. True, more joints means more potential problems. I spent some time last night just watching the thing run around and have noted two spots that seem to be problem areas. I'll get them straightened out and maybe that will help. Funny though, I put a new group of 8 cars on, only one of the coal cars, and it worked just fine, no problems at all. With just the coal cars it was nothing but trouble. Something going on with at least some of the coal cars. Also doing some testing with a group of locomotives, each of them seems to have a different personality and not all of them nice. More later. Rick H.
