Newcomers might find this of interest as I am sure the "oldtimers" here have already figured this out.
I have spent the better part of a week going over my grandsons layout trying to identify and cure all causes of derailments. My efforts have vastly improved the operation.
I had bad alinement and out of crosslevel spots in my track, some noticeable and some that were hard to spot except when running at high speed. The slightest problems were amplified at the higher speeds..just like in the real world. The slightest bump or ruff spot at HO Scale is bad news.
Some were problems associated with hook and horn couplers..they did not swing as needed or then had too much up and down movement in them. in the curves even after I worked on them. So I started changing all the freight cars out to KADEE 148 and that helped .
I had cars that were derailing every time around. They might go around twice then hit the ground. These were problems were cured by using weights to bring the cars up to or slightly over the NMRA standards.
One thing I found out is to remember to keep the weight as low as possible in the car or you have bad derailments account of a high center of gravity.
Also, by putting slightly more weight centered over the trucks then spreading the rest out evenly in the car. In my opinion this held the wheels down on the rail better over frogs and switches. I changed most of the cars out to Model Power RP-25 Trucks with Steel Wheels. That really helped the operation. The rest will be changed out soon.
At each stage of this I had a noticable improvement in reliability of operation.
Then I was left with two cars one was a 50' flat and the other a 40' wooden box car. These two cars had been weighted and couplers had been changed to KADEE 148. They had steel wheels in plastic trucks.
I would run them at slow speeds and no problems and then a little faster until I noticed a slight shimmy in the cars even though it was very, very slight. Then as I increased speed they would start derailing. However, as the shimmy did not look bad so i did not really think much of it.
Then I thought of the real world where trucks that "HUNT" or wobble are bad news and will cause derailments. So I am thinking that this slight shimmy at this scale would translate to a real bad shaking in the real world.
I took off the trucks and laid them on a flat surface and lo and behold they had a slight twist and would not sit flat on the table. I looked at them real close ( my eyes ain't what they used to be) and I could see it. I then twisted them back straight and that was it.
Then cars started tracking straight and true no shaking at any speed and no derailments. I was really proud of my investitgative skills.
Then I got up this morning bragging to my grandson "Papa is the smartest railroad man on the planet". I then tell him how I have fixed those cars and now we could play trains with no derailments.
I put the engines on all the cars and a caboose and told him start it out slow and increase your speed and you will see how good Papa fixed your
train.
Well away he went about 3/4 around and all cars and the engine went in the ditch. He said "PAPA! Somebody must have broke them while we were sleeping!"
Man I was speechless after bragging to him like I did. When looked at the cars the twist had come back in them. I guess they had a "set" in them and went back to it even though I had straightend them last night and they ran fine.
So I found some that were straight and put them in and threw the old ones away. I have been running them for 3 hours now with no problems.
So I am sure all you "oldtimers" here have been through this and know about it. However, someone like me who is new might find this of interest and check their cars out for even very slightly twisted trucks and if they are get rid of them. They might have a memory set that they return to even if you straighten them out.
Redatil67
I have spent the better part of a week going over my grandsons layout trying to identify and cure all causes of derailments. My efforts have vastly improved the operation.
I had bad alinement and out of crosslevel spots in my track, some noticeable and some that were hard to spot except when running at high speed. The slightest problems were amplified at the higher speeds..just like in the real world. The slightest bump or ruff spot at HO Scale is bad news.
Some were problems associated with hook and horn couplers..they did not swing as needed or then had too much up and down movement in them. in the curves even after I worked on them. So I started changing all the freight cars out to KADEE 148 and that helped .
I had cars that were derailing every time around. They might go around twice then hit the ground. These were problems were cured by using weights to bring the cars up to or slightly over the NMRA standards.
One thing I found out is to remember to keep the weight as low as possible in the car or you have bad derailments account of a high center of gravity.
Also, by putting slightly more weight centered over the trucks then spreading the rest out evenly in the car. In my opinion this held the wheels down on the rail better over frogs and switches. I changed most of the cars out to Model Power RP-25 Trucks with Steel Wheels. That really helped the operation. The rest will be changed out soon.
At each stage of this I had a noticable improvement in reliability of operation.
Then I was left with two cars one was a 50' flat and the other a 40' wooden box car. These two cars had been weighted and couplers had been changed to KADEE 148. They had steel wheels in plastic trucks.
I would run them at slow speeds and no problems and then a little faster until I noticed a slight shimmy in the cars even though it was very, very slight. Then as I increased speed they would start derailing. However, as the shimmy did not look bad so i did not really think much of it.
Then I thought of the real world where trucks that "HUNT" or wobble are bad news and will cause derailments. So I am thinking that this slight shimmy at this scale would translate to a real bad shaking in the real world.
I took off the trucks and laid them on a flat surface and lo and behold they had a slight twist and would not sit flat on the table. I looked at them real close ( my eyes ain't what they used to be) and I could see it. I then twisted them back straight and that was it.
Then cars started tracking straight and true no shaking at any speed and no derailments. I was really proud of my investitgative skills.
Then I got up this morning bragging to my grandson "Papa is the smartest railroad man on the planet". I then tell him how I have fixed those cars and now we could play trains with no derailments.
I put the engines on all the cars and a caboose and told him start it out slow and increase your speed and you will see how good Papa fixed your
train.
Well away he went about 3/4 around and all cars and the engine went in the ditch. He said "PAPA! Somebody must have broke them while we were sleeping!"
Man I was speechless after bragging to him like I did. When looked at the cars the twist had come back in them. I guess they had a "set" in them and went back to it even though I had straightend them last night and they ran fine.
So I found some that were straight and put them in and threw the old ones away. I have been running them for 3 hours now with no problems.
So I am sure all you "oldtimers" here have been through this and know about it. However, someone like me who is new might find this of interest and check their cars out for even very slightly twisted trucks and if they are get rid of them. They might have a memory set that they return to even if you straighten them out.
Redatil67