Derailment problem, need suggestions

Possible the width of the rails are not correct. Make there is not rail higher than the other at the track joint at this curve.

Can switch out this s curve to see if it still happens? You move it to another part of your layout and if the derail moves to that art f the layout. 

Does it derail by itself or only when towing something?

Riverrailfan posted:

Possible the width of the rails are not correct. Make there is not rail higher than the other at the track joint at this curve.

 

Can switch out this s curve to see if it still happens? You move it to another part of your layout and if the derail moves to that art f the layout. 

Like Riverrailfan mentions; replace the curve(with a new curve) that gives you the problem and see if it still happens. Could be a bad piece of track. 

Another thing to look at; what size freight or passenger cars are you running with your engine? I had a problem with a set of Atlas passenger cars and I found out the engine was too small for the set of passenger cars as the coupler on the passenger car was derailing my engine, used a larger engine and no more problem. I tried using a GP-9 and then went to an SD-45 and no more derailment issues with the passenger cars on curves.

Lee Fritz

Thanks for the help guys, I will try switching out the piece of curve but I 'm not optimistic. Rails look the same height,no joint issues I can see! Running it by itself right now. The consist will be a caboose and 5 MTH Christmas cars. Of course, where it derails is right behind where the tree will be,so l need to figure it out before tomorrow! I will try these suggestions! Thanks if I don't get it figured out you may hear me if you have a window open!!

Is there enough play in the trucks? Can they swing far enough to go around the curve?  Could be there's just  not enough slack in the wires  coming from the  trucks and motor. Hope not.

I have a rail king sd70ace from a ready to run set and I noticed that It kept jerking a little when it came off the curve (atlas 36 curve). What I found out was that the trailing truck would swing out past the outside rail much more than the lead truck. No matter which direction, it was always the trailing truck. Turns out that the dummy wheels which are on the inside axle (toward the center of the loco) have so much slop in them that they drop down below the top of the outside rail. When the loco comes to the strait track and the truck swings back to go strait, the inside of the dummy wheel hit the side of the track causing it to jerk. Going slowly around a switch it would derail. Depending on exactly where your loco derails it could be something like what I had. If it's in the middle of a turn then it is probably something else. This only applies to rail king or Imperials since the premiers have the dummy axle in the center.

Wonderful help guys, problem is solved! Tried a few things and not sure what the  cure was but definitely is fixed! My confidence in using my trains, troubleshooting, regular maintenance, etc all comes from what I have learned on this forum in just a year! My model building, wiring, all aspects of train ownership have all improved immeasurably due to this forum! Sincere thanks guys!! BILL.          PS . Merry Christmas

play trains posted:

Wonderful help guys, problem is solved! Tried a few things and not sure what the  cure was but definitely is fixed! My confidence in using my trains, troubleshooting, regular maintenance, etc all comes from what I have learned on this forum in just a year! My model building, wiring, all aspects of train ownership have all improved immeasurably due to this forum! Sincere thanks guys!! BILL.          PS . Merry Christmas

What things did you try? The more you tell/explain, the more likely to help someone else with similar problems.

Sorry, you're right! I checked the track joints and tweaked them with a needle nose. Then someone suggested that the track might be higher at the joint and I could feel a little of that so I fixed that by pulling it slightly until it felt smooth to the touch and then before I switched out piece of track ,I ran it and life was good! Thanks again!!

play trains posted:

Sorry, you're right! I checked the track joints and tweaked them with a needle nose. Then someone suggested that the track might be higher at the joint and I could feel a little of that so I fixed that by pulling it slightly until it felt smooth to the touch and then before I switched out piece of track ,I ran it and life was good! Thanks again!!

The reason I suggested the rail height at the joint is HO track with road bed is good for this. I've run HO trains and watched it go around and round and then would just derail. I would find the rail joiner would slip under the rail and not know it. There would be a small change in height at the joint from one track to the other. Correcting it would cure the issue. 

I believe it may have been your suggestion which was the cure for the problem for which I thank you! I actually felt the slight hump and fixed it and then went to every joint and found 3 more spots where there was a height difference! Infinitesimal,  but I'm learning that is more than enough! Someone mentioned on this forum once that realtrack could be a problem if it was taken apart a lot. This is the 4th year, so maybe! Anyway, thanks again and have a great Christmas! You and the other guys who responded have certainly contributed to my Merry Christmas!!!

This is the very problem with RealTrax that I have been highlighting over the last year. Without guide pins in the rails the alignment of the rails is often terrible. I think this product is seriously flawed. The switches are poorly designed and poorly made. Unfortunately for me I have about $1000 invested in this track system in my 7x9 permanent layout and fixing the track as best I could was the only viable answer to MTH's crummy RealTrax. I had to resort to bending the rails and grinding some junctures. I had to disassemble and repair the switches to get the points to fully close and shorten the anti-derailment feature track sections because they shorted the switch motor to on all the time with a buzzing (this will eventually burn out the switch motor!). The frog and the guide rails on the other side have too much slop and engines bump going through the frog. One engine (City of Denver MTH) when passing over one of my switches shorts the points to the center rail. That is more the unique wheel configuration of that engine but MTH should have made the engine compatible with their own track or vice versa.

I have no experience with Lionel's FasTrack but am told by many here that it is much better than the MTH RealTrax. FasTrack at least has guide pins for the rails. Maybe FasTrack switches are better (????).

LDBennett

Thanks LD, I am an MTH guy, but this track is not my favorite! I run no switches, can't imagine what that might be like! I'm sure there are guys out there that love it, but I am not a fan. It may be taking it apart and back together has something to do with it, I don't know. I do know I had no issues until the third Christmas I set it up. Did notice that both trains seemed to bump over some areas even if no derailments. As I said went through and smoothed everything and seems good. Still an MTH GUY, no company is perfect, and there are lots of track alternatives out there! Thanks for responding!!

PLAY TRAINS:

Actually I am an MTH fan too. In fact that is all I run on my layout. DCS works great. TMCC is way too complicated to use. Legacy may be better but I see no reason for it as all my stuff is DCS Proto-3.

But still I have issues with MTH stuff. They have quality control issues and the ReaTrax is terrible. I do like the various levels of engine you can buy from them. I have some Premier, some Imperial, and some straight RailKing. I prefer scale O gauge within reason. None of it looks out of scale when run side by side in the trains I have but I am careful not to buy freight cares other than Premium as the size differential are great between them. Engines and passenger stuff seems fine. I am somewhat limited as a great part of my layout is O-31 track which limits my choices. And even then some of the cars that are suppose to run on O-31 will not without some "adjustments".

LDBennett