me too, similar problems with Peco frogs. tight guage and wide guard rail flangeway. shaved the plastic points a bit with a dental scraper and stuck a strip of .010 styrene to the inside of the guard rail. now i set all wheelsets to the tight side of the nmra guage and most of the switches seem to be ok without any attention whatsoever. seems most modern trackwork is about like the rtr (ready to repair) rolling stock available. thinking back, the older shinohara stuff was pretty much on the money and required the least tinkering to get it to work right.
grizlump
mobilman44 It amazes me that such a relatively small deviation could derail a car, but of course it can and often does. So, I relearned a lesson and will make sure that all other turnouts get treated accordingly. ENJOY, Mobilman44
It amazes me that such a relatively small deviation could derail a car, but of course it can and often does. So, I relearned a lesson and will make sure that all other turnouts get treated accordingly.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
Mobilman,
It seems small, but remember it looks 87 times larger to that 1/87th scale wheel flange that's coming towards it.John Timm
I just had a similar experience. After all this time I would think I would remember, but until an enigine picks a point I never think to check. At least when I had the problem with a new engine, I remembered to check the points first rather than hours later. Maybe we can learn after all.
Hi,
I suspect most all of you are aware of this but I'll pass it on anyways..........
Trackwork for the lower level staging/storage on my HO 11x15 layout was completed this morning. While I wanted to finish the wiring before I do complete testing, I decided to let a boxcar free fall down the 2 % incline and end up in each of the 6 storage tracks. Well, tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 worked perfectly. But, the boxcar shamelessly derailed on the curved portion of an Atlas code 100 # 6 turnout, and did the same on two more runs.
I checked gauge and for obstructions and "all the usual suspects" to no avail. Then I remembered, that I had filed the points on most of the turnouts on my previous layout - built in the early '90s. So, I gave the points a couple of swipes with a flat needle file, giving them a slight downward angle, and then smoothed out the end. Well, it sure was the culprit, and the turnout works as advertised.
Oh, one other thing...... it is very easy to assume that NEW turnouts & flextrack is ready to go and in perfect shape. Most are, but I still run that NMRA gauge over those turnouts (and flextrack joints) just to make sure. IMHO, Atlas does a terrific job, but it still is beneficial to "check their work".
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central