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Derailment woes

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  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
  • 1,835 posts
Posted by bearman on Monday, March 20, 2017 6:14 AM

Yes, a plain derailment not a stall.  Usually a stall indicates dirty track, which is easily fixed.  The circuit breaker has not indicated a short and the locomotive, a Walthers GP9, #2092, has performed flawlessly in the past.  The track on this portion of the layout was laid and ballasted months ago.  

Have not done any track work on this portion of the layout since then, other than cleaning the black gunk when the need arises.  This portion of the layout is also easily accessible, the track is about 3-4 inches from the edge of the layout.  Usually, stalls occur due to black crud in those portions of the layout which require a bit of a reach.  And I just finished cleaning the entire layout.

Are there gremlins around? 

Bear "It's all about having fun."

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Monday, March 20, 2017 6:07 AM

deleted

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Monday, March 20, 2017 6:04 AM

bearman

How is it that you can have a layout that has been running reasonably smoothly, and then all of a sudden one particular locomotive, out of four, starts to derail at the same location and only when it is going in a particular direction.   

I have been experiencing a bit of this lately as well.

Let me ask you this.

Has the locomotive performed flawlessly in the past and now just started experiencing problems?

Have you recently done track work?

What type of locomotive?

Rich

 

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Phoenix, AZ
  • 1,835 posts
Derailment woes
Posted by bearman on Monday, March 20, 2017 6:00 AM

How is it that you can have a layout that has been running reasonably smoothly, and then all of a sudden one particular locomotive, out of four, starts to derail at the same location and only when it is going in a particular direction.  There is a rail joiner and it looks like it is derailing as the wheel flange passes over it, so I get out a file and file down the part of the joiner which may be contacting the flange.  Then I make sure all ballast around the joiner is scraped off the top of the ties and run an exacto blade along the inside of the rail before and after the joiner to make sure there is no foreign particles there and it still derails.

Bear "It's all about having fun."

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