A3 De-railing issues

[Chrissaf]

I have a problem with my 2 A3 locos - White Knight and St Gatien. Both derail when running over a Peco curved point and again on the following 2' radius curve. An O1 with a longer fixed wheelbase is quite happy, as are the other rtr locos of all makes.

b-to-b seems to be 14.2mm on both A3's - tried opening up St Gatien to 14.5.mm - no better. I feel the front bogies are too light and do nothing to steer the loco into curves. Tried inserting a spring but it needs cutting down as it tended to lift the front drivers.

Any  ideas out there?

[atom3624]

If they're used locomotives, or perhaps even new ones, I believe some people handle locomotives in different ways.

 

Without putting too much 'weight' onto the front bogie wheels, it can be possible for some perhaps too heavy handed individuals to hold via the upper body / chimney and the bogie, and perhaps bend the bogie mount in slightly, lifting weight off the wheels.

 

Obviously very slightly 'adjusting' the mount bracket.

I always adjust such that when placed onto the track correctly, the bogie wheels can still be lifted slightly off the track (perhaps 1mm) before the main drivers are lifted.

 

This is a good compromise, which permits full traction from the drivers, and should ensure the bogie wheels stay on the track.

 

Al.

[mjb1961]

The troublesome curved points ,,the posts on here are usually to do with Hornbys curved points but I suppose the peco version could be just as bad ,these curved points are notorious for derailing locos ,,,,,mjb

[ColinB]

What I did with my two A1/A3s was to do as you have done, put a spring in the front bogie. I bought a pony truck spring (quite difficult to get) and inserted it. I experimented with different lengths, what I did find was that it only needed a few coils of the spring, it was probably only about 4mm long. Basically it was not much of a spring, but it worked. I put the fix on both of my locos and they don't derail anymore, incindentally on curved points. I had the same issue with my P2, on that I added a bit of extra weight in the form of phosphor bronze.I like the spring better. Both locos were Hornby A1/A3s.