Derailment 911!!!

[Anonymous]

I have been test running my Bachmann Spectrum K4 4-6-2 through my newly laid track. Everything runs smooth as silk...except for when the tender runs through a frog. It always pops a wheel or two off the rails.

I tried loosening the coupling screw between the tender and engine to allow more play, but it still does it...forwards and backwards! It almost seems like the tender is to light weight. These are standard Atlas #4 turnouts. Nothing overly dramatic as far as turn turn radius is concerned and there's a nice 12 inches of straight between the turnouts. The spurs which peel off of the turn outs are also perfectly straight out of the turnout.

Any ideas why the tender keeps jumping the rails. The engine has no trouble.

Thanks in Advance,
Trevor

[Anonymous]

check in the frog for any flash, ballast, or other debris, also run the engine over another turnout just like that one and see what happens. Or, if you do find anything, clear it out of the frog. Its also good practice to check that the tender wheels are in guage, dont have anything stuck to them or have any flash. If none of this yields any results then you may want to try adding wieght.

good luck!

[dinwitty]

check the wheel gauge

[Virginian]

And make sure the trucks swivel freely and that the engine isn't hitting the tender (try the second hole in the drawbar).

[retsignalmtr]

i have purchased several bachmann n scale diesels and i've found that all of the wheels were out of gauge. they run well now after readjusting the wheels. don't only check the gauge. the wheels have to be in line with each other so they track in a straight line.