Heavy Mountain Pilot trauck derails alot

[OlddManWithHO]

All,

    Finished some trrack work on a new level and ran my Mountain around to test work.  I see that the front boogie is constantly derailing.  Shouldn't there be a spring forcing it down for pressure?

    Also the front tire is derailing a lot.  Was having issues with the loco before on bottom level in a few spots.  I've got a few more locos and they dont have issues.   Got this Mountain off of Ebay a few years ago.  Maybe  seller knew he had a lemon and sold it.  Loco came in a Spectrum black box.

Roger

[jonathan]

The Heavy Mountain is one of my personal favorite locos.  I have two.

There are some things you can do to help this loco.

If you have an HO track/wheel gage (must have for modellers), remove the front truck and check the wheel gages.  It is typical for Bachmann steamers that the pilot truck wheels are a bit out of gage--usually a bit too narrow.  After that, make sure the wheels can turn fairly freely.

I added just a touch of weight to my pilot trucks: a penny, a small, flattened piece of lead... whatever you can make fit.

These locos are heavy, but can be helped by adding a little weight in the smokebox area.  Helps balance the weight closer to the middle of the drivers.  This will help prevent the front drivers from climbing over the rails on a curve.  On that subject...

These locos will manage 22" radius curves, but handle 24" radius curves much better.

Regards,

Jonathan

[OlddManWithHO]

Thank you Johnathan,

   My track is HO 100 code with 24" radius.  I'm working on hammering out a lead weight to fit under the pilot wheels now.  If I can get the loco to transverse the layout with out them derailing, then i'll probably order a new driver wheel chassis to replace the suspect front drivers.

    Oh, on a side note about my Mountiain I replace the tender with a much bigger Bachamann tender to get a larger speaker in it.  I think I went from 28mm to 32mm.  There was big difference in sound.

Roger

[BobZ]

Jonathan,
I have several steamers with the same leading truck problem. If the wheels are out of gage how do you fix it? I'm relatively new to HO and I don't want to mess something up.

[jonathan]

Pilot truck wheels are relatively easy to adjust.

You need a wheel/track gage to check the gap in the wheels.

There is a tight plastic liner in one side of the wheels.  This makes it possible to TWIST the wheels by hand.  Work slowly and gently.  You should be able to gently pull/push the wheels in/out as needed... while you are twisting.

A slight change--like 1/64th" can make all the difference.

As an aside, almost every steamer I've ever owned needed a slight adjustment to the pilot truck.  just sayin'

Regards,

Jonathan

[OlddManWithHO]

For a follow up.  I've added a lead weight just under the pilot truck.  Just enough clearance to go over frogs.  Seems to have helped alot.

Front driver still wanting to climb over rail at some curves.  Wished they had made the rails a little taller.  Will try to do some track work at the bad spots and see if I can even out the track.  I noticed the plastic rail joiners giving me grief.  Need to pull out the ties and file them down where the plastic rail joiners are causing the rails to lift up.

Roger