Flange Wear and Track Wear, for that matter

Since my engines basically run the same direction around the same loop, I've noticed a very slight sharpening of the flanges on the left sides of engines. These are pieces only with flat wheel treads. Tapered treads on coaches don't have noticeable wear, which is understandable with the taper. I haven't worn track out, but what was a local toy store at the beach had a circle of LGB running in the window for two or three years, every day, 10 hours a day. Not only did the treads and flanges (plastic) on wheels wear to the point of nothing being left, but the outside rail had a noticeable wear marking after years of use in the same circle hours on end. The owner at the time was very kind to show me the wear in the equipment and track. Quite something to see! 

Never saw a drive wheel or track wear down. I guess it could happen but in the 40 years I have been running trains I have not seen it.

I guess I haven't lived long enough to wear out track or wheels, but I did buy a prewar Lionel loco that had deeply grooved drivers.  didn't stop it from running though!   I had the drivers replaced just for looks, painted the original ones as rusted, and placed them in a gondola in my scrap yard. 

I once bought a very-well-used Lionel 681 for parts.  The frontmost and rearmost drivers had grooves worn in them.  That's the one and only Lionel locomotive I've ever seen with driver wear.  The drivers on my 2026 (which I got in 1951) are a bit shiny, but it'd be stretching a point to call it actual "wear."

I have heard of this happening, but I will only repeat what was told to me.

 

Our club layout has inexpensive starter sets for people to run in the store when the layout is not in use by club members by pushing buttons to run different loops of track.  When a customer pushes a power button, the engines start up and run at a medium speed in the same direction for one full loop before coming to a stop. 

 

According to the store, they get a lot of traffic with customers running the trains throughout the day, 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week.

 

The guys that do maintenance on these engines for the layout / store have reported that the flanges on these starter sets are worn extremely sharp.  I think they have already replaced some of the drivers previously for the same problem.

 

The track is all Ross along with Ross switches, and there is no noticeable track wear, although, we have a group that constantly is cleaning the track both by hand and with track cleaning cars which gets dirty really fast.

 

May be others from our club will chime in with more accurate details...

 

 

Would the solid rail wear the wheels out (realtrax) versus, lionel tubular?  I thought with curved tubing, its gentle rather than sharp rail like the solid MTH

I've seen some grooves in well used stuff I've purchased, but not totally worn out.  More often I see a build-up of black crud that seems to keep the wheels from wearing!

As Paul as said our club has wheels that are sharper than a razor because they are running on rails that are not tubular and these cars and engines get 10+ hours a day. We have even replaced can motors because of wear. The flat top on the rail has cause the flanges to get very sharp. This is what we have discovered and the conclusion is from the square or flat type rail. These trains do always run in the same direction so that to will fall into play I am sure.

 

I knew there was a reason for that stuff, gunrunnerjohn!  And I've been removing it all this time!

It only happens if you run it for 24 hours...

That's why Lee has to remove it, he's a special case.   I guess the used cars I was buying were coming from his layout.

And there's this great stuff you can remove it with that looks like a 50/50 mixture of blue slime and yellow slime.

 

Gerry

"...only if you use that prototypical flat top track with the sharp edge like gargraves and atlas. 

 

The whole point of Lionels rounded rails be it tubular or fastrack is to minimize wheel/ flange wear."

Hello RickO.........

 

Is that true, I never knew that perhaps i should switch to fastrack as i am looking for stater set track pieces for a 40 by 60 oval.  I would like to make a mini layout for my computer desk. I see the rails shaped like that but never knew why.

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011

Tiffany

 My post above is a bit "tongue in cheek" however,  I think logic would give it some merit.

 

 

 Read it on the bottom of this 2006 catalog page.

http://www.lionel.com/Products...E5190&PageID=954

Hello RickO.........

 

I read that and i am surprised !!!!!! and does this apply to fastrack or just the tube type track that's being made for the last 100 years ?  I am getting the Williams NW-2 and few cars for the mini computer desk layout. 

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011

Tiffany

Well, Fastrack does have a rounded rail profile, it's not sharp edged like Atlas track.  I don't know if it helps with wheel wear, it's never been a problem for me, but that was mostly on tubular track.

I think I remember a report from the Choo Choo Barn that they have had to replace worn out GarGraves track.  EnterTrainment was probably not up long enough for Elliott to have to do this.

The sharper the turns and the longer the wheelbase the more likely you are to see wear on the drivers or the rails.  T shaped track is more likely to sharpen flanges than tubular and nickel silver track is more prone to wear than tubular steel.  Running constantly in one direction will cause more wear on one side.  Dirty track can lead to additional pitting of track and/or wheelsets from the arcing.   Display layouts are more likely to exhibit this than home as they tend to get run near continuosly and they often have tighter curves to save space.

I have only seen it happen on one MTH starter set steam engine. It had operated about 225 hours a year for 4 years just during the Christmas season. The flanges were razor sharp with under 1/8" left on the flanges. The train was run on realtrax and this was a Christmas engine. Of all of the engines that we used this was the only engine to show this amount of wear and I believe the main factor for this wear was that this train only ran on a small oval of track under 4' x 7'. This train was only operated on the highest and smallest level winter section. As where all of the other trains on the display operated on way larger ovals with usually around 12 trains running all of the time.

   

I have to say this is a good example of why I love this forum.  As many on this thread (and in passing, on several others, I guess because this is active now) have observed, flange wear is not something to be worried about.  But this is a quite INTERESTING set of responses and observations. 

Re: Wear on the inside of the ball of the rail on the outside rail and sharp flanges...

 

That's prototype! 

 

See guys?  You 3 railers are much more prototype than you thought!

Hey gang long time lurker first time poster,

 

I used to work at a Hobby store while in school, we had an LGB trolley running around the train department, it ran 5 to 8 hrs aday 6 days a week. I started there in 1994 and we replaced all the curved sections and the wheels. In 1998 when the store closed the the wheels and track needed replacement again. Although this was with LGB brass track and just the 4 wheel trolley truck. 

We use to have an 8ft shelf with a back-and-forth trolly in the store a few years back. Initially we used tubular 'O' track, with two O-31 S-curves for interest. After a year of running back and forth 8hrs a day, the trolley actually wore holes through the side of the outside rails at both ends of the S-curves. We replaced the track with Atlas-O, and after two years of operation there was no noticable wear to the track.

 

The only 'sharp flange' problem we ever had was using RealTrax on a 4x8 demo layout. I laid my thumb open on the flange edge of an F40 that had been in all day use for a bit over four months. Never saw this problem with any other track system.

 

It just occurred to me that if the flanges get sharp like that, we can use the locos as can openers!

Hello Lee Willis

 

Now that is a VERY good idea !!!!! as i DO need few can openers to use.

 

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011

Tiffany

 

Or maybe rotary scalpels.

Another O scale myth.

I have had the same layout, albeit with additions, for 22 years now.  The track is Lionel O-27 tubular.  Over the years, I have had to replace all of the track and switches on the original portion of my layout due to track wear, primarily at the joints.  The track actually developed holes.

I have had no noticeable issues with flange wear.

Curt

Years ago I work as a manager at a family restaurant which had a G Scale train layout whichhung from the ceiling.  It was a single track that ran through the entire building; dinning room, bar, server area, foray, and even through the manager's office.  The train would run every day for 10-14 hours, 363 days a year.  We went through about an engine every year and it required constant maintenance to keep engines and cars running.  Occasionally, I would be required to re-rail the train, or some other task that would provide a close up view of the track itself.  After10-15years of service, the wear on the rails was so prevalent that the top side of the rail would peal off in long metal strips leaving just a slender vertical stub.  So it is possible to wear out the track, just takes a little time and pressure.

This has turned into a delightful thread.  I really had no idea that, while rare and not something I have to worry about, flanges and track can, in fact, wear out. 

Very informative.

Who knew you could actually wear track out?

 

Rod

I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a heck of a time sleeping last night because I was worried about the wear on my track and wheel flanges.  I guess that 24/7/365 running will have to come to an end.   

Allan:

I view this track wear issue in a positive light.  If it is wearing out, at least I'm getting to spend lots of quality time in the basement.  Too, even when I can't afford a new engine or additional rolling stock, I still have the money to buy some new track and use that as an excuse to work on my layout.

Curt