Derailments, how many do you have??

[joeyegarner]

I am asking this question based on a lot of what I read here on the fourms. I have a 9X9 railroad in one of my out buildings in my yard. I seldom have derailments almost never in my 3 or 4 hour operating sessions, if you have taken time to test and re-test again your track work you shouldn't have many derailments at all. When new about 6 or 7 years ago I could leave my trains running for as long as 8 to 10 HOURS with out any derailments. I have heard some people say they can't leave the room with out knowing something will be wrong when they come back. Now how much enjoyment can a person get from that????? laying track is the one skill you must master before you can build a railroad. It's not something to be taken lightly it's more important than the finest detail on any locomotive, you best weathering job on any peice of rolling stock, or the people in your buildings. It is and should be your primary focus[:(!]!!!! My opinion. Sorry for venting.[:(]

[cacole]

Derailments are extremely rare on our 20x40 foot HO scale club layout because the track was carefully installed from the get-go and we used only Peco turnouts wherever possible. The few derailments that occur can usually be traced to a low coupler pin, wheels out of gauge, or a turnout set wrong.

[MAbruce]

Very few on my layout. None over the past few months - happens when you don't run any trains...

Primary causes are usually low trip pins and turnouts not being set properly.

[Anonymous]

shoot im a rookie then, i have an average of 3-5 per hour, but i guess im still learning

[howmus]

I Never Ever have derailments on the Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western! That is unless a friend comes over and wants to see the layout run. Then they happen constantly. Fetridge's Law ya know. "Nothing ever happens until it is no longer favorable to happen." Actually most derailments on my layout happen because of a turnout left the wrong way, or a small piece of "whatever" left on the track or because the layout got bumped when I was working on it and didn't notice the row of cars I derailed.

[DavidGSmith]

None, I check every joint as I lay track. I can best describe it as the track must flow, no kinks. Take your time. This is the most important part of the layout. Watch switches,they must not have any grade changes in them.I laid most of the track on our club layout, 600' + main and a 20 track yard 20, long.
My home layout On30 using Peco track and turnouts. I use NMRA standards for weight, this also helps.

[nbrodar]

Almost never. Occationally, I have a guage problem with the track or wheelsets. Usually, though it's a low coupler trip pin.

Nick

[Anonymous]

Hardly ever - usually it's an item that's on its first test run and needs some adjustment, or operator error such as trying to run through a switch that's set the wrong way. I also have one car that's rather choosy about where it runs - Rail Power Products 56ft well car, built from the kit (before Athearn offered them RTR - my LHS had one for a very small sum and as it came with decals, etc I decided to have a go) and fitted with Kadee trucks. This really doesn't like the two Peco medium switches I have at one end of the layout (think it's a case of the couplers trying to move too far) but is fine if you move it out the other way (where there's a short section of flextrack between the switches). I'm considering adding a couple of ballasted containers in an effort to solve the problem.

[joeyegarner]

Hey, you know what?? Just thought of something funnny The people who have derailments are never going to say anythng here. hehehehehe

[SpaceMouse]

I have a few derailments. Almost always though, it is because the EZ Track turnout doesn't completely open against the rail. I'm not sure how to solve this. I'm realtively sure that something has gotten under the throw bar and is creating friction.

However, if I set a train running, I can walk away.

[ac4400fan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by howmus

I Never Ever have derailments on the Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western! That is unless a friend comes over and wants to see the layout run. Then they happen constantly.

Now Isnt that the truth LoL..But I seldome do Not have any problems. If i do i always find the cause and take care of it right away otherwise i can run trains for 24 hrs if i wanted without a problem.
Carl..

[twhite]

Under normal operations, I have very few derailments. Usually if they happen it's going to be in the yard, and then usually because I'm running a switching operation too fast. Out on the main I was having trouble with one of my curved turnouts (the points are right under a bridge, naturally), but found out that the heat of the summer had shifted the track. Quick cure with some re-setting and re-ballasting (garage layout, you know, uninsulated). Works okay, now.

But like a lot of people say: If you're going to have a derailment, the chances are 80-20% it will happen when company's over. Murphy's Law.
Tom

[Anonymous]

One word: Turnouts

I'm not exactly sure why I don't have better luck with turnouts. Might be a little ballast that is interfering, or if a turnout is not on a completely flat spot. But overall not that big of a problem. I only have two turnouts where this is a concern and they both run with the flow of general traffic.

Another cause of derailments though is cars uncoupling. While rare, it has happened a few times and while you're whistling away maybe not paying 100% attention, they uncouple and along comes another train (love DCC!) and WHAM!!!

Even better, on grade and the cars start rolling backwards downhill and WHAM!!!

Jawbone

[Anonymous]

I derailed one time and that was enough for me....Sept. 28, 1903[;)]

Running too fast on old poorly installed track can cause problems. [B)]






Wreck of Old 97 - Thought some of you may enjoy this. [:D]
http://www.salisburypost.com/area/284537876723188.php

This photo was taken within an hour after the Old 97 crashed in 1903.
By Buddy Gettys, For the Salisbury Post

The summer lingered on into fall. The trees were beginning to show various colors, but under a clear blue sky, the temperature reached the mid 80s by early afternoon. It was Sept. 28, 1903, in Danville, "The heart of Southside, Virginia."

John Wiley and Ethel Faust picnicked on a grassy hill overlooking Still House railroad trestle, which also offered a clear view of the Dan River and the Riverside Cotton Mill, where John worked for $4 a week. The trestle had been there for almost 30 years, built in 1874 and named from the old Still House on the creek bank that made good Danville whisky. It was Sunday and John's only day off. In November, he would turn 16.

Seventy miles north, Southern mail train No. 97 crossed the James River Bridge. The train has just taken on a new crew at Union Station in Monroe for the next leg of its run — 168 miles to Spencer, N.C.

Old 97 had a reputation for speed but was 52 minutes behind schedule this day. Earlier that morning, Old 97 had been held up for an hour in Washington, waiting on a late mail train from the north.

Engine No. 1102, a ten-wheeler, pulled the train. In railroad jargon, that is a 4-6-0 Baldwin Class F-14 locomotive. It weighed 160,000 pounds and had a wooden cab. The train consisted of two postal cars, an express car and one baggage car. It had an average speed of 37 1/2 mph, running between Washington and Atlanta, including stops and slowing down for catch stations. Its top speed had been recorded at 90 mph.

Because Old 97 was late pulling into Monroe, the regular crew had been dispatched to another train. Joseph "Steve" Broady of Saltville, Va., got the assignment as the train engineer on Old 97. Others on the five-man crew were: Conductor Thomas Blair of Spencer; Fireman Albion Clapp of Gibsonville, N.C.; Apprentice Fireman John Hodge of Raleigh, N.C.; Brakeman James Mooney, also of Raleigh.

When Old 97 stopped briefly at Franklin Junction in Lynchburg, 17-year-old Westworth Armistead, working for Southern Express Co., came aboard to check the locks on the mailbags and remove and add valuables to the safe. Broady gunned the train out of the station before young Armistead could get off.

Back in Danville at the Still House trestle, John Wiley began to feel that something was wrong. The train by which everyone set their timepieces was very late. Normally, the train would cross the trestle at exactly 1:50. John checked his pocket watch; it was already pass 2:30.

Minutes later, John and Ethel heard the train coming in the distance. Its whistle was screaming. They stood 50 yards from the trestle.

Seventy-seven years later, in 1980, 93-year-old John Wiley told Jim Watson, a reporter for the Danville Register & Bee, that when he first heard the train, "it sounded like Southern train No. 97, and it was coming through the Henry Street crossing. I knowed that when I heard that whistle, it was going too fast."

He was right. At 2:42 p.m., Old 97, at the end of a three- mile downgrade from White Oak Mountain, it approached Still House trestle running flat out. "I figured he was running about 85–90 miles per hour", Wiley said, "too fast to make that curve on the trestle."

Engineer Broady tried to slow the train, but it was too late. He took the curve throwing 80 tons of iron against the flanges on the outside wheels that were hanging onto the track. As the flange on one wheel broke off, the mail train jumped the track, riding the cross ties for about 80 feet and then dropping abruptly, smashing into the corner of the mill and ending right side up in the muddy ravine of Cherrystone Creek.

The train carried 50 feet of the trestle with it, and the impact reduced the wooden rail cars to splinters. Ten men — all five trainmen and five postal clerks — died instantly. Six postal employees were injured, and one died a week later.

W.F. Pinckney, an express messenger from Charlotte, walked away unscratched.

Seven crates of canaries were busted, and the birds flew above the steam vapors and filled the air space over the wreckage.

"You could hear the racket all over town," John Wiley said later.

Wentworth Armistead's body was found buried in the creek bank a month later. He had been reported missing in Lynchburg. Total dead: 11.

Southern Vice President William Finley in Atlanta immediately issued a statement: "The track between Lynchburg and Danville, in addition to the structure of the wooden trestle, had recently been inspected and was in excellent condition. An eye witness report said that mail train No. 97 was going too fast to make the curve."

John Wiley and Ethel Faust were the only eyewitnesses to the wreck.

Two years prior to the wreck, Southern Railway became one of the first railroads to sign a contract with the federal government. The contract called for moving mail between Washington and Atlanta for $140,000 annually but included a stiff penalty for every 30 minutes the mail was late. The idea was to give an incentive to move the mail fast. Joseph Broady and Old 97 did just that.

Four days after the wreck, a temporary spur line was laid to haul the engine from the ravine. Towed to the Southern Railway Shops in Spencer, employees rebuilt Engine No. 1102, and it remained in service until 1930, when it was scrapped.

John Wiley walked away from the crowd at the wreckage and said, "To these railroad people, this won't nothing." He was almost right again. The accident would be little known today had it not been for a ballad that immortalized the wreck. Several individuals claimed authorship of the "Wreck of Old 97," that used the tune of the old song, "The Ship That Never Returned."

In 1924, Vernon Dalhart's version of the song sold more that 6,000,000 records, making it the first country music song to sell more that a million copies. Johnny Cash recorded the song in the 1970s.

"Well, they handed him his orders in Monroe, Virginia, sayin' 'Steve, you are way behind time.'

"This is not 38 but Old 97 — You must put' er in Spencer on time."

The song and several newspapers exaggerated the story. Headlines of the Richmond Leader said, "Mail Train Makes Wild Leap." The article said, "Old 97 leaped 50 feet from the trestle and fell 75 feet to the creek bank."

Southern Railway's accident report showed a sketch of the trestle, indicating it was 325 feet long and 43 feet, 8 inches at its highest point from the creek bank. Pictures taken shortly after the wreck show the engine lying within 10 to 15 feet from the base of the trestle. Therefore, the train fell after going off the trestle a few feet.

Investigators estimated Old 97's speed at 55 mph. (About 2 miles before entering the trestle, a sign warned, TRESTLE AHEAD, SPEED LIMIT 10 MPH). The drive wheels on the locomotive had been reversed, indicating Broady made a desperate effort to slow or stop the train.

In January 1907, Congress refused to renew the mail train appropriation, saying, "The regular passenger trains get mail to the southern states fast enough." On Sept. 24, 1964, J.J. Dunlap, one of the few and the last living survivor, died at age 85 in Washington. His casket displayed a picture of the young Dunlap standing beside Old 97.

Thirty-three-year-old Fireman Albion C. "Buddy" Clapp, who hailed from Gibsonville, near Burlington, is buried at Springwood Presbyterian Church cemetery in Whitsett, N.C. His grave marker indicates he was "Killed in the wreck of train 97.

John Wiley lived to be 98 years old.

Every town has its big story. This one belongs to Danville. But the wreck and words of the song certainly entwined Spencer in more ways than one. The song said to "Put 'er in Spencer on time" or make up the lost time at any cost.

Conductor James T. Blair was a deacon at Spencer Presbyterian Church. Broady, the engineer, spent nights in Spencer while he was on the road. He may have spent his last night there before being dispatched to Monroe, Va., to take over the run of Old 97.

Locomotive 1102 sat in the Spencer Shops yard on Friday night and headed for Washington on Saturday morning before the wreck on Sunday.

Broady's brother, G.A. Broady, a road foreman with Southern for 51 years, lived in Spencer. Engineer W.A. Kizziah of Spencer was scheduled to take over as the engineer on Old 97 when it reached Spencer on a leg to Greenville, S.C.

Spencer Shops dispatched a crew and derricks to the wreckage to help move it from the ravine.

At the wreck site, the track bed and trestle no longer exist, victims of time and kudzu. There is often talk of building a museum in the area where the wreck occurred. If a museum is built, an excursion train running between the wreck site and the N.C. Transportation Museum at the historic Spencer Shops may be an idea to kick around. Call it the "Old 97" and "Put 'er in Spencer on time."

***

Writer's note: Researching information on this story was as much fun as writing it. I met a number of interesting people, some who recounted me stories their ancestors told them. I found a lot of conflicting information, but in most cases, I was able to work out the reason for the conflict and find the facts. Many thanks to the Danville Information and Visitors Bureau, the Danville Public Library, the Danville Register and Bee and the Rowan County Library History Room.

Also information was gathered from Katie Letcher Lyle's book "Scalded to Death by the Steam;" a paper titled "The Wreck of Old 97" by Raymond B. Carneal; the Norfolk Southern Railway; and Springwood Presbyterian Church in Whitsett.

Buddy Gettys is the former mayor of Spencer and writes occasionally for the Salisbury
Post.

Happy Steaming!!

[on30francisco]

I very seldom have any derailments on my On30 Tres Arboles RR. I use Micro-Engineering codes 70 and 83 flex-track and have a little bit of hand-laid track. I use Walther's/Shinohara and Micro-Engineering HO turnouts. I converted them to On30 by replacing the ties. I make sure all joints are in gauge and flow smoothly. I also use all metal wheels on the rolling stock.

[johncolley]

Very rarely...as long as you don't count the times when the *@%$$ hogger tries to run a switch that isn't thrown. Also you can't count the time I was backing a 12 car streamliner on a friend's yard and didn't realize the crossovers were #6's. Funny how 85 foot cars don't like that! jc5729

[waltersrails]

pretty Rare on my layout. The only time i have them is when i run my dash 9 to slow it jumps the tracks.

[loathar]

QUOTE: Originally posted by joeyegarner

Hey, you know what?? Just thought of something funnny The people who have derailments are never going to say anythng here. hehehehehe

Oh yea? To quote Carl Sagan...billions and billions...
Even though I went out and bought a coupler gauge. Took a day and went through all my cars and locos and set everything. Works fine for a day or two and then it seems like the couplers start sagging and causing problems. KD and McHenry. I'm almost ready to cut those friggin trip pins off! I'm not going to use uncouplers or run my stuff on club layouts. Any thoughts?

[joeyegarner]

QUOTE: Originally posted by loathar

QUOTE: Originally posted by joeyegarner

Hey, you know what?? Just thought of something funnny The people who have derailments are never going to say anythng here. hehehehehe

Oh yea? To quote Carl Sagan...billions and billions...
Even though I went out and bought a coupler gauge. Took a day and went through all my cars and locos and set everything. Works fine for a day or two and then it seems like the couplers start sagging and causing problems. KD and McHenry. I'm almost ready to cut those friggin trip pins off! I'm not going to use uncouplers or run my stuff on club layouts. Any thoughts?

Yes I have an idea,[:D] I think you should cut the trip pins off. Not complely but you should shorten them. I always cut them short and bend them up a little to keep them from giving me trouble

[selector]

I have one most times I run trains because I forget to throw a switch. It only happens once per session, and is a reminder that I have to be focused. Now, if I were to simply leave the switch in the wrong position, in most cases the train just passes through. But I try to wait for a gap and throw the snap EZ-Track switches (the wide radius ones with the black button that slides sideways) between truck passages...which is where I sometimes get into trouble. [|(]

Also, my Harriman pax cars don't seem to like being shoved through points every once in a while. Pulling is always okay by them.

[trainboyH16-44]

I used to have a lot of derailments, then we improved the pike a lot. Replaced sections of track with longer bits of fextrack, and always track doctering. Now we only have a couple places where things derail, one is a mystery, and the others are Peco switches that seem to hate trains.
Matthew

[Anonymous]

Very seldom, and then it's usually a car on it's first run. Almost always the problem can be traced to wheels or couplers, and I have a few "bad actors" that always seem to cause problems, no matter how much I adjust and fiddle with them. But I've pretty much eliminated all of the track-related derailments....and just like the prototype, grade crossings are a major cause of things going off the track. Then there's always the occasional cat-caused wreck!

But the one sure way to immediatley have a derailment is to leave the room[:D]

QUOTE: Originally posted by joeyegarner
I think you should cut the trip pins off. Not complely but you should shorten them. I always cut them short and bend them up a little to keep them from giving me trouble

[#ditto]That's exactly what I do...saves a lot of headaches.

[selector]

I, too, "adjust" my trip pins...hee, hee. What do you want, factory set pins or cars that run through your frogs and crossings?

[Anonymous]

I rarely have derailments except when I pull freight cars with my Life Like GP40PH ,when it takes off it jerks and runs too fast even at its slowest speed. it stops in a fraction of a second and 95% of the time it throws cars off the track.

[Anonymous]

Usually now my derailments come from a switch I forgot to throw back, but when I was using the bachmann EZ track I had them continually, I am shocked how track I hand laid works better, I think I didn't do the best job hand laying it either and I still have better results over the ez track! (not much talent here)

[loathar]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Davidvd59

Usually now my derailments come from a switch I forgot to throw back, but when I was using the bachmann EZ track I had them continually, I am shocked how track I hand laid works better, I think I didn't do the best job hand laying it either and I still have better results over the ez track! (not much talent here)

That's a VERY interesting reply. I would have thought the EZ track would be way more forgiving. I would love to hand lay but the personal skill level ain't there. I have tried the Central Valley product which is a semi-hand product that looks great and is in my skill level but I had problems with derailments at the frogs.I would have expected problems at the switch points but they where fine. CVMW.com said most folks don't have problems with the frogs and recomended another companies cast frogs to solve the problem. Problem is... $14 switch kit plus $13 frog plus $14 switch machine equals WAY more than I want to spend per switch. Got any tips to help out with the frogs?

[Anonymous]

aw well, I run on a tight budget, so if I said non, it would seem I'm lying, so, yes, I currently have 2 devils hidden, on under a switch, the other on a curve, but i think that is because the track is expanding again cause its been 31 degrees celcius here, compared to 5 a few weeks ago! And that's in the house!!! lol, I still have all my fingers, no frostbite yet! What is the best way to keep dirt from sticking to the loco's wheels? I found this arvo my atlas gp40 had a mole hill stuck to its wheels, runs a bit better now!

[Anonymous]

I have one sticky point, sometimes i have no trouble for days then as im swithitching ........I'll replace it one day....

[Anonymous]

When I started out I had several. As I have become more experienced, they have become fewer and farther between. Now I will go back and rework a section if I have problems with it. The main cause of derailments now are trip pins that are too low. Usually this happens on only brand new equipment. All the others have been fixed. I don't agree with the point of the first post. It is kind of like saying that you shouldn't get into the water until you are a proficient swimmer. That is not the way learning works. Although you and I don't remember it, learning to walk was not easy. How are you to develop your skills without first jumping into the water?

[dragonriversteel]

Hello all,

Remember the seven P's and you won't have track problems. Just a freindly reminder from your pal.......Mr Track Gremlin.


Prior, previous, planning , prevents, **** , poor, preformance !!!!!!!!!!!!