FM Trainmaster derailments

I had to look at mine to see what the issue could be.

I hadn't noticed the extra height of the SO turnouts guiderails before.

I think a few, various, engines are riding up it a bit here too.

No big issues. Just a slight "bump" I had attributed to the need to re-ramp some frog, or roller path, wear. I'll need to look closer at mine too.

  I've never done it, or heard/seen about it being done, but I'm thinking simply shaving those guides down might be the "catch all" answer.

  Is it high there, to compensate for the upward push of the anti-derail tabs? That's the only "negative" thought* I have. Ie "Will a light car (unloaded, shorty plastic flatcar) hop off there if its trimmed?" They do rise, and ride over the anti-derail tabs, instead of through them on occasion.

Looking at them, my knee jerk reaction was to say the extra height was there for the taller rail code of rounded tubular .

Maybe it was initially designed with normal tubular rail in place, till the proto arrived,

and those rails were a "Monday morning miss" they didn't think about. 

*Yep, time to watch that junction a little closer  (thank for asking this too)

You might want to see if your pick-up rollers aren't dropping in a gap.  I had this problem a few years ago and changing out the rollers fixed it.

Alan

I had the same problem with FM Trainmasters on Super O switches. The problem can be solved by raising the blind wheel axle on both trucks so that the blind wheels do not get caught on anything. I cut washers in half and glued them on the inside of the truck to raise the axle by about 1/8".

thanks guys!  I am out of town for the weekend, but I will investigate both solutions next week and will post my results.

          Thanks

I have a Lionel GP7 and the roller would drop into a gap on a KLine o72 switch and derail or get stuck. Thought it was a bad roller or spring tension on the roller was no good. Replaced the roller same problem. Then someone on this forum said put a small piece of wood in the gap on the switch. Problem solved.

I had a problem like Alan describes with a different locomotive.  The Lionel Legacy Lionmaster PRR T1 Duplex would derail on Atlas switches.  One of the front facing rollers would jam in the switch and derail the locomotive.  Occasionally, it would bend the roller in the process.  I finally removed that roller and used a one-wire tether to join the tender rollers with the locomotive rollers.  No more derailments and it runs fine.

I've seen several engines where the roller gets tangled up with the switches and causes issues.  As Alan says, the roller dropping down may be the issue.