My turbine front truck constantly derails in turns. I am yet to get it through a complete lap before it derails. I am running it on 0-72 RealTrax so I don't understand what is going on with it as this is the recommended minimum radius for it. Is this a known issue and is there a fix? Any help would be appreciated.
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I don't know if it's a know issue but another guy I know has the same problem. His guy is working on it.
I had a proto one version at one time and ran it on 072 tubular track with no issues and ran it on my club’s gargraves 072 curves which were the smaller radius curves on our layout. Never had a derail issue.
Keep us posted.
Check to see if any wires are binding.
I believe there was a problem with the swivel plate that mounts both motors warping or binding. Inspect the plate to be sure it is flat and not warped. MTH had a kit that provided replacement plates and instructions on how to install it. Don’t remember the part number and I didn’t see it under the parts website. You can try contacting MTH to see if these kits are still available and if they were meant for your model.
I had one of these that would not run on O-72. A quick easy solution is to remove the air tanks that hang from the bottom of the frame. They restrict the travel on the B-B truck assemblies. They are just held on with 2 screws each so they can be removed in anout 5 minutes
@Mike D posted:My turbine front truck constantly derails in turns. I am yet to get it through a complete lap before it derails. I am running it on 0-72 RealTrax so I don't understand what is going on with it as this is the recommended minimum radius for it. Is this a known issue and is there a fix? Any help would be appreciated.
I bet it's derailing when the front part of the train goes into the curve while the rear of the train is still in the straight.
Is this from the new run, or original version?
@Chuck Sartor posted:Is this from the new run, or original version?
Early version. 20-2185-1 from 1998. I got it last year and only just got around to running it.
Yes, those are known problems with that run. The bolster sits too low. As Jon G. stated, MTH made replacement bolsters for this model. I would guess they are long gone. BUT, I would contact MTH and I bet the bolsters they used on the current run will fit your older model.
Here is a little vid and some pics I just took. Sorry for the shakiness, it is difficult crawling around with cell phone in hand. Looks like the warped frame for the trucks is the issue at this point. Crazy thing is the rear truck frame is much worse than the front. I think I will take it apart and see if I can straighten them out. The MTH parts site is useless at this point in time, so I am not even going to try there right now. Thanks for the input.
@Chuck Sartor posted:Yes, those are known problems with that run. The bolster sits too low. As Jon G. stated, MTH made replacement bolsters for this model. I would guess they are long gone. BUT, I would contact MTH and I bet the bolsters they used on the current run will fit your older model.
Thanks for the info. I read somewhere that the parts folks aren't taking calls or e-mails for parts. I don't know if that is true. I will try to contact them and see where that gets me.
The rear bolster is definitely warped. The front is snagging on the air tank. You might have some luck on using spacer washers to raise the center pivot on the bolster to clear the body.
@Chuck Sartor posted:The rear bolster is definitely warped. The front is snagging on the air tank. You might have some luck on using spacer washers to raise the center pivot on the bolster to clear the body.
Ryan mentioned the air tanks also and I didn't notice them until I looked closely at the underside. I will give that a try as a stop gap until I can get around to repairing it properly. I sent MTH an e-mail so hopefully I will be able to get some parts to fix it. Thanks again.
I removed the front air tanks and the test run was successful. It is running well without derailing now(the front truck anyhow, the warpage on the rear bolster is causing issues with the lead truck on the trailing set). Thanks to all of you for your help.
John G had it right, the swivel plates are warped. MTH only had a rear plate from a recent run available. It is much thicker and has caused a new problem. The casting is too thick to tighten the motors and trucks together fully without the whole thing basically clamping to the plate. I am going to have to do some grinding on the trucks to get this all to work properly. There was no info on mods that needed to be done to make this new style plate work with the old trucks/motors, so I'll have to wing it. I think I am going to try to take the front plate off later and heat it with a torch to straighten it out since I can't get that part. Thanks to everyone for your help.
New info. I disassembled the whole rear assy. The old motor mounts are too large to fit in the frame by approx. .225". I contacted MTH about new motor mounts. If anyone has an older unit, you will need to get new mounts as well.
The rear frame is warped badly. The new frame is on top. Lower picture shows the motor mount on the new frame showing how much larger it is than the recess for it.
I wonder if you could find a different motor mount that would work for it?
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I wonder if you could find a different motor mount that would work for it?
I contacted MTH tonight to find out if they have different mounts. If they don't have the ones I need, I will have to take the ones I have to the bench sander and take enough material off of them to make them fit. Fortunately only the outside needs to be reduced in diameter.
12/1/21 UPDATE;
I found the kit to repair my loco.
For those of you in a similar situation, I provide a little helpful info.
After several days of back and forth with the folks at MTH parts, I found out there are two different motor mount configurations. The earliest versions had a larger mount that was a good bit larger in diameter than the motors. The later versions had a smaller mount that is about the same diameter as the motor.
The frame that I received from MTH was for the later version and is not going to work on my loco. Since I wasn't able to get the correct parts from MTH, I decided to do an internet search for the frames.
I found that Trainz had 10 kits with both front and rear frames. The listing was and still is not correct. After several days of back and forth with them I was able to get enough info to purchase the kit. The kit is for the early versions with the large motor mounts. It is the complete factory kit with instructions. Trainz has it listed as an HO part, with an HO part number. I able to get them to change the description to O gauge, but could not get them to change the number. I guess it is a small win and I'll take it since I have the parts to fix my loco. For those of you that are interested look for 80-2057-1X, which is the number for the HO Veranda Turbine.
I'm at home for the next few days with the Flu, so I have time to fix my loco and hopefully it'll be back on the rails in a couple of days.
I have attached a couple of pics. One shows the three frame configurations from MTH. The one on the left is the defective early frame that is prone to warpage. The center frame is the newer style with the smaller motor mount recesses. The frames on the right are the pair that come with the kit for the larger motor mount frames. If you have the really early PS1 version, Trainz has the kit for you. They are a steal also, so jump on it if you need these.
The frame warping is the cause for derailments and removing the air tanks is just a stop gap. The frames will continue to warp until the trucks will not sit on the rails even with the tanks removed.
Nice score, I don't have one of those, so I'll leave those parts for someone else. 
This will be my last update. I received an e-mail from MTH parts this morning. They can get the newer style frames and mounts if anyone needs them. They sold out of the old style replacement frames years ago, so if you have an early version and you miss out on the Trainz offerings you will have to swap out to the newer set up. The folks at MTH parts have been really helpful throughout this process.
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