Merchant Navy (and other new locos) front bogie derailing on standard Hornby points.

[John-797057]

I have had this problem for a while, but as of recently I hadn’t had a proper track laid out.

I tested the new BR blue Merchant Navy and while testing on points, the front bogie derails everytime, no matter the speed.

This has happened with numerous locos such as the 1:1 Black 5, an older Patriot Class and my Coronation is hit or miss.

I don’t know if it’s because they are older points, from when I was younger (15 years+) or is it a problem with the loco? Possibly the bogies positioning? as they all seem to have the bogies close to the driving wheels.

If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

[ColinB]

I am surprised, if the locos were about 10 years old then it definitely was an issue, the latest Hornby locos don't usually do it. Hornby redesigned the front bogies and generally are much better. I have had issue with the old Hornby P2 and Tornado, but the latest Duchess and Merchant Navy are usually fine. I do have uneven track as well.

[RDS]

@John

Moderator Note:

Could you please select the 'View my Community’ in your Dashboard on the Forum and choose a nickname in the ‘My profile' tab, rather than your First name that has been automatically allocated by the system. Hopefully a Forum change is coming soon to prevent this automatic allocation but a manual change is required at the moment and there is definitely more than one member with your name.

[atom3624]

A few things:

1. Back to back - check the back to back of the bogie wheels are 14.3-14.5 mm (always used to say 14.5 mm, but some think that's a little too tight.
2. As you are lifting up the locomotive, to remove from the track, how soon do the bogie wheels leave the track, after the driving wheels. Just after and a 'little tweak' is required. A good 5mm and that's pretty good.
3. How well are the points mounted - are they flat? Is the track connected properly? Many like to add an extra pin to ensure it's well located and flat.

Al.

[Brew Man]

I've been running a Prairie with a few GW coaches for a while. The loco would wobble when entering the cross-over point even when set for straight ahead. It didn't always do it and sometimes the wobble was bad enough to cause a de-railment. I checked the track at eye level and everything appeared to be dead straight. The point was also firmly flat. Yesterday I had a look at the loco and decided to remove the brake block rigging. I then ran the loco again for at least a couple of hours with no sign of a wobble. So I have concluded from this that the front bogie has occasionally been snagging on the front-most brake block causing the loco to wobble as it entered the point. Of course it could yet make a liar of me slightly_frowning_face.