All the benchwork is done, the Homabed is down and I've laid and wired about 2/3 of the track and turnouts. I'm using all Atlas 100 flextrack with Peco North American small radius turnouts. I've got a Digitrax DB150. I've finally gotten to where I could run trains (I thought).
I have a Broadway Limited 2-8-2 with DCC and sound (my Xmas gift last year). On the straights and curves, it's beautiful. The sound and effects are nice and it can run at what I think is an incredibly slow speed. But, I'm having a horrible time troubleshooting a problem with my turnouts and the Mikado.
Here's the symptoms and the tests I ran:
My first attempt was to run the loco into the turnout from the "single" side. If I take the straight route, no problem. If I take the divergent route, the loco appears to ride up on the frog in an attempt to go straight. This causes the first set of driving wheels to ride up as well and shortcircuit on the frog. It definitely does not pick the points.
If I enter the turnout from the divergent route (going forward), the loco rides up the frog as well. If I back the loco into the frog from the divergent route, all is fine.
I have a 4-6-2 that a good friend gave me that is not yet DCC-equipped. That loco has no problems on any turnouts. I can run a regular freight car (with 2-axle trucks) through any direction and all is fine. If I manually push the Mikado through the tests, it never derails.
I can see that the coupler pins on the Mikado are not hanging anywhere.
Just on a lark, I ran the loco forward into the turnout from the divergent route at a much faster speed and it still hopped the frog but actually hopped back over the rail onto the correct side before it reached the end of the points.
I checked the wheels of all my test cars and locos with a track gauge and all wheels were spot-on. Likewise, the inner width of the track throughout the turnout was within tolerances although near the frog it was a bit tight. This seems to be true on all my small-radius, Insulfrog Peco turnouts.
With the problem loco's main driving wheels sitting directly over the area of the turnout that measured a bit tight, I could still easily move the wheels transversely, indicating there was enough "slack" to get through.
What else can I do to figure out where the problem lies? Many thanks for any enlightenment you can provide. I'm at my wits end.
Hi Wes
Check the width of the guard rail to stock rail on your pecos. I have had to glue a .015 shim to the inside part of the guard rail on a lot of mine. Another thing is that maybe too sharp a radius for the big Mike. Does it derail backing through the diverging route? If so than the later would be the cause. But more than likely the flangeway is too wide letting the wheel of the long wheelbase loco bypass the frog point.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
I saw the term "North American Peco" turnouts used in a recent MR article. Perhaps I misused the term. I specifically stated that I am using "small radius" turnouts from Peco because that is the term used on the box the turnouts came in. I believe I read somewhere that Peco's small radius turnouts are actually somewhere between a #4 and #6 (about a #5). Can someone confirm this?
I was afraid that the 8 in 2-8-2 was causing my problem, especially since my Pacific negotiates okay. My track plan is cast in concrete at this point. The the turnouts are already purchased and 2/3 of them are wired and installed. So switching to #6 is an option in only a very small number of places.
In answer to another responder's query, the derailment does not occur if I back the loco into the turnout. I'll try narrowing the flangeways a bit to see if that gets me by.
Any other comments are welcome. Thanks for the quick feedback.
Wesno, Peco code 100 is "universal" which means that it is built to acccept old British Hornby, and other European brands that had cotton reels for wheels. The wheelsets on your BL 2-8-2 will be to NRMA standard, but your turnouts flangeways are much wider. You will need to get an NRMA gauge and shim the flangeways back to standard width. You also need to check if the flanges on your Mike are wide enough to maintain contact on the diverging rail until they reach the frog rail. If not, the wheels will dive into the gap and cause more problems.
Because Peco is the dominant track brand down here in Oz, this is a something we have battled with for years. In general terms, all Peco Code 100 small and medium radius turnouts will need to have their flangeways and diverging rail gaps narrowed if NRMA complaint rolling stock is to run reliably. Large radius seem to work OK unmodified. Peco introduced code 75 with finer standards in recognition of this problem, but it's flangeways are still not quite right to NRMA specs.
The only Peco track which can be termed "North American" is their code 83, which is made to NRMA standards, with numbered turnouts, the ties scaled at HO, rather than the British OO scale and released specifically for the US market.