My Northern 4-8-4 has started throwing off the rubber traction tires...Are these tires supposed to be "glued" or otherwise fixed in place?...This loco has very few running hours, is 3 years old, and runs only at Christmas...Tires do not seem to be dried out...

More on this uncoupling...In a sense, it has been resolved...The manual says to put the cars on the track and "gently" push them together and they will automatically couple...While they look like they are coupled, they are, in fact, not...As DoubleDAZ pointed out, they have to be pushed together until a "click" is heard...That means holding both cars still and pushing them together, not just putting a car on the track and pushing it up against the other one, which, if not held, moves...

Now there is another problem and it concerns the curved terminal/rerailer...The pilot truck on the loco derails if the train is run any faster than a crawl...I will be buying a straight terminal/rerailer to see if that can be remedied...In the meantime a tiny slip of soft plastic foam inserted between the loco frame and the top of the truck keeps it on the track by putting light downward pressure on the truck...

Jerry

Quote from: the Bach-man on December 26, 2010, 12:06:01 AM
Dear Jerry,
Does the uncoupling occur at one spot or anywhere in the oval?
If the former, check the rail joiners at the problem spot. If the latter, make sure your track is level.
Merry Christmas!
the Bach-man

As I said, I am an old (80 yrs) HO guy and I don't buy into the theories and reasons why I am getting uncoupling...I have used the old Mantua HO "hook and loop" automatic couplers, Athearn and Kadee, as well as non-working scale couplers that had to be coupled by hand by lowering one into the other...None of them ever decoupled by themselves... If absolutely level track on a very hard surface is required, then random uncoupling at turnouts, crossovers, and grade crossings are going to be a problem...

My track is on a coffee table on top of a thin layer of cotton "snow", but it is absolutely flat...In my opinion, it should not be happening...The stock couplers do not have enough meat at the knuckle, making for a very loose fit...If it is normal, it is going to discourage a lot of folks, especially youngsters from getting into the hobby...I am sure that Bachmann does not want that...

Are there better after market couplers available?...

The uncoupling is ramdom, happens anywhere on the loop and with any car...It might be the caboose, might be in the middle of the train, might be at the tender...Very frustrating...The loop is level all the way around, but I will have to remove it from under the xmas tree and try it on a hard surface instead of on the cotton snow...Still, it does not seem right, that should not happen...

Jerry

I am an old HO scale fan and have been inactive for many years...Recently I bought a Bachmann N gauge Empire Builder train set to run under the Christmas tree...Big problem...The cars will not stay coupled...The train runs fine in reverse, but if run forward, any one of the cars will uncoule at random...I cannot get one lap out of the set without uncoupling...Any suggestions?...New couplers?...

Jerry