Camber problems, don't overlook them.

[Anonymous]

We have had ongoing problems with the camber of the track, ie the transverse slope of the track. Most of them don't cause any trouble at all but some do and its hard to get them exactly right wjen you don't have a straight eye and wear multi focal glasses.

Many problems to do with derailments can be traced back to incorrect camber and or a few problems that include camber. It is hard to work it allout sometimes.

I have a problem, no irregularity that is causing me no trouble at all, but it may as my layout develops. I am sure it is to do with using club rail whichis similar to "flexi track". I bend my own rails and thread sleppers (ties) on to them and there you have it.

I have a 2m (8') straight stretch curving to the left and going straight into a 4 % gradient and the outer rail in the curve and just past the curve is lower than the inside rail, higher would be not satisfactory but better.

I think the camber of the base leading up to the curve is causing some of the problem, but when I take the rail section out and lay it on a flat surface it has the problem but on a lesser scale, has anyone any idea of what would cause this.

I have had this problem previously and was able to fix it with adjuating the ballast but not this time.

Any ideas?

If necessary i can supply a photo.

Ian; Kawana etc. [?][^]

[bman36]

Ian,
Is it possible your track has become bent? That is was it perhaps walked on? Can you recreate this scenario with different pieces of track. Just wondering what the results would be then. Not sure what else to tell you at this point. Hope this helps. Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

Iandor, Does this happen with a specific car or length of car? I was thinking maybe the front truck camber tilts one way and the trailing trucks camber maybe tilting the opposite way, with the car body trying to twist forcing it off the track causing the derailment.[?]

[Anonymous]

Hi Ian,
Is this a stress thing, is the inner rail fractionally longer than it should be and when it was positioned and clamped/joined to other track did the inner track compensate for the stress by pushing through the ties onto the outer rail and push it down. Could be that the inner track on this section needs a few thou taking off.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[Anonymous]

Matt I havre had this problem elsehwere and you were quite right, I just changed the camber and it was ok, funny thing though it was only withone type of carriage and to look at it there was nothing really wrong. The carrige was 600 mm long with two only two axle bogeys.

But this is different I am not getting any derailments but my small level tells me it is askew and i can't get it straight.

Brian and Kim I also think you guys have a point, in that i could have bent one getting it out of storage, they are 12' or 3.69 m long. They are the correct length overall but maybe I have positioned the bend slightly different in each rail, it couldn't have been much as i have checked it out.

No derailments yet but i must get it right because of where it is, I have already sent Kim a few photo's so he can appreciate the position better and i will do the same for you Brian, Matt if you send me you email address I will send you some as well and maybe we can all figure it out?

[Anonymous]

Iandor, I sent you my e-mail address, I would be interested in seeing your photos.

[Anonymous]

Matt

Thanks for your reply, I am going to get another photo, which shows the skew up a bit better, it doesn't rain here it pours. So as soon as it stops i'll get something better than I have; to show the problem better, just a few days and thanks

Rgs

Ian.

[Anonymous]

Gentlemen and Rene.

I have reintroduced this topic as I have made some progress with this problem.
Also I have spoken to Brian and he could not understand what my problem was, so if he can't I wouod guess that many others couldn't either. I f you read what i had to say to John about using flextrak you may get a better idea.

What i have down is to drill a small hole in inside side of several of sleepers (ties) and to pull them down hard as I could into the ballast using long bobby pins (ladies hair pins)and left them like that for several weeks. Then I came along and elevated the oputside of said sleepers and the problem is largely fixed, not entirely so but good enough I hope.

Why this must be fixed, is that as rolling stock comes along a long straight at speed and as it hits a bend it tends to try to keep going. As it goes around the bend if the camber is wrong it tends to lean out and will derail easily and the bigger they are the easier they fall, particularly high passenger carriages.

Any comments please.


Rgs


Ian. Kawana Island Tropical Railway.

[Anonymous]

Hi Ian,
I remember an article from many years ago about curves in the smaller scales. The first involves leading a train into a bend on a shallow curve before going into the full curve. It would be something like having a bend of Aristo 8' with the first curved section being 12'. The second is 'super elevation' where the outer edge is higher - as you have done. For our scale I think it would be better to construct the track base out of concrete and actually screw the track down to it. So, coming along the straight the train would go into a large radius curve with the elevation of the outer track actually starting about 2 or 3 inches BEFORE the curve and rising along the curve coming to full elevation before the main smaller radius curve is met. A similar exercise would be needed coming out of the curve. I think it would be important to start the elevation on the straight section because the wheel is entering the twist in the track in a straight line rather than having to negotiate a curve at the same time.
Makes sense to me - sort of!
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]