Secondhand sporadic points de-railments??

[70s kid]

/media/tinymce_upload/06e1fa7ae7c900c8f082f54db6c59e27.jpg

/media/tinymce_upload/4874c1f6908789644a96548a6d921044.jpg

/media/tinymce_upload/619c3e8f44ea485bf317ebc2c20625d5.jpgI've finally got round to underlaying my track with 1/8 inch cork and tacking the track to the baseboard. All the track I've used was acquired from purchase of previously owned DC train sets.I'll trim the cork and put ballast down but I've a points problem I need to resolve first. 

Can anyone offer suggestions why trains are de-railing when going over points? They don't de-rail every time and they look fine. I'd expect if there was a problem, that de-railments would happen every time but sometimes trains pass without problem & other times I get de-railments. I had to give up trying 4-6-2 Locos as the front bogey was constantly de-railing in favour of 0-6-0 but even this simpler configuration is de-railing at times. When I introduce carriages, they too sometimes de-rail. 

I suppose I could just buy new points but its a hard-core of about 3 or 4 out of 13 Points that are problematic.

I've attached photos to let you see the layout on an 8X4 baseboard. 

Is there any way of visually seeing if a point is likely to cause sporadic de-railments or have you any suggestions/ ideas?

thanks 

[LCDR]

 There seems to be some odd gaps where the straight (or curved) tracks join to some sets of points, the sleepers seem a long way apart. Are these joints tight and smoothly joined? Rails should be tight up against the next one with no noticable gap, and the adjacent rails should be in line with no kink. A gap can cause bogies to bounce, and so can a kink.

[2e0dtoeric]

Those points in the station area look to be quite small radius, and are also forming S-bend crossings. It could be that the bogey on the larger loco's is simply fouling the chassis, as a result. Larger loco's prefer a third radius turn, or larger.

Run a loco VERY slowly over a point, and watch it closely, you may well see the problem.

.

Also - that short spur from the double level crossing to the headshunt has a kink in the track where it connects to the point there. That won't help. If it cannot be 'eased' out, replace that bit of track with a piece of flexi, then you can have gentle 'wiggle' in the track removing the sharp corner.

I don't know if it is lens distortion, but that double track on the right of the pictures appears to come very close together, this could be indicating that a 'quarter' straight piece could be used on either side of the outer curve, to ease the track away a little more, (if the board is big enough!) avoiding two trains colliding at that place, although they are on different tracks. (I don't know the R number off-hand, as all my trackwork except pointwork, is flexi).

Apart from that, it looks good.

Before you consider making anything permanent, have a good 'play' with the layout - there is always something you don't like, and want to alter!

[choralc]

R.610 for the quarter track.

[Rog RJ]

As these are second hand points, the very tip of the plastic frog could be worn down or blunted.  If it's blunt the wheel flanges can catch and ride up.  Check them very carefully, it may be possible to file them to shape if necessary.

 

Another thing to check is the back to back (sometimes called b2b) measurements of the wheels.

[70s kid]

Thanks guys. Because I was haunted by de-railments before I tacked the track down I tried to make sure the points were snugly fitting against track without gaps. I'll take a close look at them tomorrow as I don't really fancy having to buy brand new points unless a last resort. 

The track is quite close to the other track alongside - very well spotted but I had to join the ovals so I reckonef it was better know to avoid trains at those locations at the same time.

thanks again 

[LCDR]

 Alignment of adjacent track pieces can also be important, and at least a couple of places the track joins do not appear to line up accurately.  Non-standard geometry can lead to minor irregularities which may not affect 4 and 6 wheel locos but longer ones will derail. Transition from one track piece to the next MUST be as smooth as possible. 

 

Also avoid 'twist' where one rail on one side of a track piece is higher than the other and this height difference changes within a locomotive length, especially through points. This can be a problem on the real railway too. The best way to detect this is to get your eye level as close to the top of the rail as you can and look along the track. Both rails should be level, or if they do change height the change should be gentle and equal.