I still doubt it was the spring causing the problems...
Like one of the other poster's said - sometimes the pivot is "off center" on the pilot truck, thus one set of wheels sticks out a bit more (so it looks "right"). I had a similar problem with my "new" Hudson last week - it ended up that teh pilot got twisted around funny, and the flanges on the front drivers were catching on the flanges of the pilot wheels...
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
Sometimes the smallest things make such a big difference, eh?
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
my trucks where stuck or kept derailing.i took out the the spring and now the trucks arent stuck and dont derail anymore.
Have you checked it out statically - jacking it up with Lego bricks or something so it will still run? I did this with mine because it made funny noises and lurched. Turned out that there was too much play on the rods and the traction tyre stuck out too much. Fixed that by shaving it down and thereafter it ran much better and derailed less.
However I think its the pilot thats the problem, mine can be turned around so its sort of running backwards and tilted up, well it only happened once after a crash. Some folks swear by wrapping solder around an axle to weight it down more and some have claimed that the pivot is in the wrong place and needs repositioning.
Just some ideas
NO, don't take it over there. They have little to no experience with Lionels. This type of thing would be better posted on the Classic Toy Train forum.