While I really love my Bachmann Sound Value F7A's they do have a small problem. I am guessing the wheel flanges are to big. If I have to push them through a turnout (I have to install engines and cars by a turnout) they will derail when they go across the frog? I am running code 100 track. If the engine is moving under its power they are fine. I have a few DCC on board engines and they all so have the same problem.
My BLI, Proto and Athearn Engines do just fine.
Does anyone besides Bachmann make wheel sets for there engines?
Thanks for the coming answers folks!
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
First, I'd check the gauge of the wheels on all axles of your locomotives. Then the guage of the track where the problem is occuring. Do you have an NMRA STANDARDS GAGE? (that's how it's spelled on the actual tool) Best money you'll ever spend! Don't let it's apparent simplicity fool you.
It will give all the correct recommended measurements for gauge of wheels, track, flangeways, depth of flanges, everything you need to check regarding track and wheel standards. Whenever I've had tracking problems, this tool always finds it, except if the track is not laid evenly, as in level.
Code 100 track is pretty tall, it not likely flange depth is causing the problems. Dan
Get yer NMRA gage and use it. Don't GUESS whether your flanges are too deep.
Ed
I'd be surprised if the engine's flanges are too deep. Is it possible the coupler glad hand (air hose) is catching on the frogs? The guys are right -- get an NMRA gauge and check flange depth and whether the wheels are in gauge, but I would also consider getting a Kadee 205 height gauge* to see if the air hoses are too low (they hit the front plate). I ditch my Bachmann couplers (our club requires metal couplers) and fresh-from-the-pack Kadees almost always need their gladhands bent a little. Low gladhands often catch on either the uncoupling ramps or the frogs.
* Or you can just eyeball and see if the gladhands are hitting the frogs...
Kadee #205 height gauge:
https://kadee.com/htmbord/page205.htm
Ken, it is not the wheel flanges. Dragging or pushing any locomotive is not a "best" idea. Please explain why you do this.
Bachmann uses NMRA RP25 wheels like everyone else, which could never be an issue on code 100 track.
Sheldon
cudaken If I have to push them through a turnout (I have to install engines and cars by a turnout) they will derail when they go across the frog? I am running code 100 track. If the engine is moving under its power they are fine. I have a few DCC on board engines and they all so have the same problem.
It seems while you are manualy pushing a loco through a frog, the wheels act/respond differently than when they are under they're own power.
I agree about the NMRA gauge, they are a necessity, but can't you move the loco ahead during the train building process under it's own power? instead of pushing them?
Mike.
My You Tube
If I do slide a locomotive along the rails for any reason, I always, BUT ALWAYS, lift up most of its weight so that the driven wheels can slide more easily, thus putting much less strain on the inner works. This act also saves a lot of unnecessary and damaging scrubbing between the tire surfaces and the rails which will cause premature rail and possibly a damaged surface more easily susceptible to gathering crud.
Ken, you would know this, but Code 100 rail is huge rail in scale. There's nothing except maybe the largest pizza-cutter flanges that should ever give you trouble, and since you and I have been in the hobby, the typical flange should be able to pass over Code 70 with no hitches. Something else is wrong. I would suspect a problem with the gauge of your flanges, but it could also be the gauge of the flange path near the frog. For example, many people report having to glue a thin shim of styrene on the inside faces of some guard rails in order to get the opposite flange to stop picking the frog point. Or, the gauge is wrong in the flange path between the wing guard, the crook on the closure rail that runs parallel to the frog point rails, and those frog rails. Also, it's true, some flanges are deeper than others, and they may ride up on some plastic filler on either side of the frog point rails. Many frogs are filled there to keep wheels from falling into the small gap between the frog rails and the closure rails where the closure rails take that sharp turn to form the inner guards.
Either way, the tell-all will be your trusty NMRA gauge. It has the nubs along its edges that allow you to check wheel gauge, track gauge, and the clearance between inner guards and frog point rails of the flanges with yet another set of nubs. I can't tell you how wonderfully useful that tiny thin sheet of stamped metal really is. I'd pay $30 for one, let alone the few I actually had to pay now 12 years ago.
-Crandell
I never expect locomotives to behave well, or even stay on the track, when I push them by hand, no power. As long as they run thru the turnout happily under their own power, I'm happy with them. When you push a locomotive, power off, the wheels are locked and are sliding along the track. Soon as sliding friction on one side gets greater than the other side, the truck will try to turn, perhaps enough to catch the frog. Whereas under power, the slight taper of the wheel treads gives a self centering action that you don't have when the power is off and the wheels are sliding.
And, I never met a flange, even those European deep pizza cutter flanges that wouldn't run on code 100. My experience goes back to the '60's on that one. I'd expect your Bachmann F units with factory installed sound decoders to have NMRA RP-25 flanges which will run happily on code 70 track. Even hand laid hand spiked code 70 track.
I put my NMRA gauge to all new rolling stock as it goes onto my layout. Every so often I find a wheel or two out of gauge. And I twist the out of gauge wheels by hand until they come into gauge. Easier to find and fix on the bench than on the layout. The NMRA gauge is cheap, it will check flange depth, guard rail width, side to side and overhead clearance around loading docks and tunnels, wheel gauge, track gauge, and coupler height. And probably some more stuff I have forgotten about.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Thanks for the answers folks!
Crandell Good to see you friend.
Ok, I have never checked the wheel gauge on any of the Bachmanns so it could be that simple. Just seemed odd only the Bachmann engines have that problem? That is why I was thinking wheel flanges being to big.
I will check things out and Thank You.
Ken