Hi
Ever have one of those days? For a first timer I though I did a decent job laying my track, but since I started running stuff with six axles I've been very humbled. Bought five heavy weight passenger cars and found one that would always derail in a turn. keep in mind I have several engines with six axle trucks. After many tries running said car through the turn and much time inspecting car and track I found a very very slight gauge tightness in the track at a joint. The other four cars were happy with the track, but this one little sucker wasn't. It works now!
Happy days are here again.
Lee
Been there.
Several times.
Highly correlated with the introduction of a new engine.
The derailment of 6 axels over 4 axels is more common than many of us would like to admit. I have found the problem to be caused by two conditions. The most common on curves is the outside rail being lower than the inside rail. I have a small level I place across the track to find these issues. The second is a rapid change in grade on a curve, instead of keeping the grade constant through the curve. This can be found by placing a metal straight edge along the top of the rail and looking for high/low spots. Ask me how I know these.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Yes, I should have added what Jeff mentions. I have had recent problems with two new engines, one a Genesis modern diesel and one a hybrid BLI 2-10-2. In both cases, derailments happened where the outside rail dipped unnoticed on a curve.
-Crandell
selector In both cases, derailments happened where the outside rail dipped unnoticed on a curve.
In both cases, derailments happened where the outside rail dipped unnoticed on a curve.
That's why railroads had track maintenance crews. Send them out to fix the track! Shouldn't take them (or Crandell) more than several hours to adjust/replace the track in question and reballast.
I think there is a lesson here: use three-axle-truck locos and cars to test track as it is laid if one has any inclination to run same.
Mark
markpierce selector In both cases, derailments happened where the outside rail dipped unnoticed on a curve. That's why railroads had track maintenance crews. Send them out to fix the track! Shouldn't take them (or Crandell) more than several hours to adjust/replace the track in question and reballast. I think there is a lesson here: use three-axle-truck locos and cars to test track as it is laid if one has any inclination to run same. Mark
And try to use the longest 6 axel locomotive you can find with the stiffest trucks.
HI All
On another point. I have measured all of my Atlas turn outs and I believe that there is a slightly wider gauge on the diverging track right at the rivet of the blades. It's not much but I believe it's there. Anyone else agree? If that is the case I would think it is there to keep from binding the six axle trucks.
jbinkley60 [And try to use the longest 6 axel locomotive you can find with the stiffest trucks.
[And try to use the longest 6 axel locomotive you can find with the stiffest trucks.
Boy, do I agree with that. Test run your least forgiving equipment. You will most likely experience immediate frustration.... which can be resolved with a few hours of tinkering with your track. And it will save you MANY, MANY hours of frustration later.
BTW, I have found that the two most useful tools for troubleshooting derailment issues is the NMRA Standards Gauge and the compact digital video camera. Get it right down at track level and use a bright flashlight, and it's guaranteed to capture the exact moment your wheels leave the rails. Saves on that look, rerail, look, rerail, look cycle.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
I have learned this the hard way, never trust anything that comes out of the box. Get yourself an NMRA gage and a truck tuner and wheel puller/installer tool from Micormark. I now check every single piece of rolling stock and locomotive as soon as it comes out of the box. I would venture to say that around 60% of the rolling stockis slightly out of gauge. Not by drastic ammounts and not every axel but a little here and a little there sure add up and result in a lot of cursing resulting in raising your blood pressure and pulling hair form your head and if like me you can't afford to do either.
As far as running 6 axel locomotives I can't swear to it but I believe they are like steam locomotives that don't run over anything smaller then a #6 turnout. I run the gamet oof turnouts on my layout. Micor Engineering, Walthers and Atlas and have no problem running any locomotive over them. Again I have learned the hard way take your time installing them and you may have to message them a little hear and there but generally they are fine right out of the box as long as you install them correctly.
If it makes you feel better, the real railroads had these problems too. Former GN employee Robert Porter says in his new book on iron ore railroading that when Great Northern tried using the FM Trainmaster demonstrators on a long ore train, they derailed at virtually every turnout because the trucks were too "stiff". GN F-units and SD-7s had no trouble with the track, nor did the big GN mallets, but the FMs just didn't work on it.
I'm just to the point in layout building where I am shimming the 72" radius curves of the main line to 5" super elevation (1/16" balsa strip under the outer ends of the flex-track ties). I have a number of new Walthers heavyweight Pullmans that have never been run; I'm finding that the truck kingpins seem to be installed too tightly, so that they bind on the super-elevation. I also have a number of well-tuned heavyweights with an assortment of trucks (Central Valley sprung /equalized, re-wheeled Rivarossi rigid-frames, etc.) which work fine, as they were set up to run on my last layout with the same radius curves and the same super-elevation. So, in this case, six wheeled trucks are giving problems, but it isn't the gauge of the wheels or the track, it's the kingpins.