Lionel 4-4-2 constant de-railing, help

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Lionel 4-4-2 constant de-railing, help

  •      I have a Lionel Pennsylvania Railroad 4-4-2 (purchased in 2001 with the Lionel Pennsylvania Flyer set), and it seems to have a problem. Whenever I hit a curve (no matter what curve, no matter what speed), the front set of trucks (the first four wheels, not the power wheels) jump the tracks and end up between the middle rail and one hangs off the edge, This does not happen to my older 4-4-2 Santa Fe engine. Help?
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  • check the guage of the lead truck - it may be off slightly, causing the wheels to bund in the track and jump off. Also, you will want to make sure that the lead truck pivots freely, and that it doesn't have too much vertical play. One last thing to do may be to check if it is missing any springs that are/were used to keep that truck against the railhead.

    -Dan

    Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site

  • REPAIR SHOP. No way around it.

    Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.

  • I disagree that it would need to be taken into some form of a dealer to get repaired, although it DOES need said repair.

    Maybe you could try asking in the General Discussion (Model Railroader) forum, there might be some more helpful suggestions to be had there.

    -Dan

    Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site

  • 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.

    Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.

  • Yeah, he's probably right.. the MRR gen. disc. is a mix of people, but the real Lionel experts would be in the Classic Toy Trains forum.

    -Dan

    Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site

  • You post it on the MR forum, and you run the risk of getting yelled at.

    Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.

  • I think you run that risk for any forum... some of the "old-timers" seem stuck in their ways...

    -Dan

    Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site

  • I HATE THAT.

    Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.

  • did you check the track there might be a little gap in the track that will derail it.Also check the wheel and see if they might be the cause.or you might be going to fast.Oops [oops]
  • I have not been on a lot, because I have not been working on my trains a lot. But I have recently been working more. I rebuilt and re-modeled the layout and made things a little smoother and the engine is not having as much trouble. It still occasionaly comes off (the front set of trucks) when it is going slow. However I have not been running it as much, because I finally bought myself a Lionel Berkshire engine and I run that most.
  • Cool.if you take  out the spring on the front wheels it should go slow and not derail as much that is what i did with my prewar 224 modelSign - Ditto [#ditto].  How old is it cause the more you run it the better it works.
  • problem with that is the spring is meant to keep that truck ON the rails - otherwise the lead trucks have a tendancy to jump off on their own (ad the weight of the loco is on the drivers, and not the lead/trailing trucks... as opposed to prototype)

    -Dan

    Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site

  • 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

  • my trucks where stuck or kept derailing.i took out the the spring and now the trucks arent stuck and dont derail anymore.