keeping rolling stock on the rails

[wjstix]

If you haven't, I'd try posting this question on the "Classic Toy Trains" forum, I'm sure you could get more answers there. "Classic Trains" (this forum) is about real trains from the past.

[selector]

I model in HO, but I'll give it a shot.  First, are we talking truck or body mount couplers?  If body mount, your curves might be too sharp for the length of car or their couplers.  Also, in HO we are often advised to use a flat file to bevel the inside upper corner of each rail where it abutts/joins with another.  We give the leading upper edge a gentle curve, and the flange corner a bevel so that the flanges don't pick or get hung up on the joints.

Have you switched up the order of the consist so that you can eliminate the problem being specific to a type of car, or even to a given car?   If the last couple of cars, no matter what they are, derail, I would be at a loss.  If they derail towards the centre of the train, it may mean stringlining due to the lighter weight of those central cars.  They experience too much drag forward and aft, so get get lifted out of the rails literally hanging by the couplers.  Happens in the "big leagues", too.

Also the degree of travel, or the resistance or impediments to it, of the trucks can be an issue.  When they are supporting the weights of their cars, do they pivot freely as far as they were meant to do by the manufacturers?  Is there excessive lateral rocking, or yaw?  If so, tighten one of the trucks on the offending cars until it pretty much can only swivel, but not rock at all.  Leave the other looser so that the car effectively has a three-point suspension that way.  Oftentimes, this solves problematic tracking in some rolling stock.

Now, I'm tapped out.

[Anonymous]

It seems my o-scale passenger cars and boxcars (especially those the the back of the train) derail a lot.  Other than adding weight to the cars, does anyone out there have some good ideas for reducing the number of derailments?  Thanks!