Issues with 08 shunter stopping on the plastic part of the hornby points

[Anthony-375290]

Just wondering if anyone else is having issues with the 08 shunter stalling on the plastic part of the points and diamond crossing.

[moawkwrd]

Fact of life with short wheel base locomotives and insulated frog points unfortunately.

Others have reported that on some Hornby points the plastic frog is slightly higher than the rails and this exacerbates the problem, so worth checking. Checking and adjusting (if out of spec) the wheel back to back could also help.

Solutions for DC include switching to electro frog points (and all that entails) and ditto for DCC and/or fitting a suitably small stay alive.

Making sure the track, wheels and pickups are clean can also help to mitigate it but unlikely to have completely smooth running without doing one of the above.

[Rallymatt]

Adding to the above, check the wheel wiper contacts stay in contact with the wheel back at furthest travel. You can adjust the contacts by bending them a small amount but remove the base keeper plate and the contact strip to do it and be gentle, the phosphor bronze wipers are delicate.

[Hobby11]

First thing I'd check is that everything's flat, use a metal ruler's edge to check. Second is clean wheels and track. I've been modelling in 009/H0e for decades and we use 0-4-0s with dead frogs, the usual reason for stalling is one of the above.

[Ivans Rails]

I can't say about it stalling on points but my 08 is my worst runner. Kind of the reason I never bought a 2nd one.

[Gregory-374918]

Never mind the 08. I have a TT A1 from the Scotsman set, just "invested" ( not the right word) in some track, points, etc, laid them out on a completely flat plywood baseboard and seemingly randomly the Loco cuts out and stops over points. Particularly frustrating as it is HMDCC which means it takes ages to restart itself. Not impressed.

[ntpntpntp]

@gregory is the loco losing power or causing a short circuit? The tender locos have so many pickups they shouldn't notice the dead frogs at all.

If it were a plain DC loco I'd say turn the loco upside down and apply a pair of power wires (controller set half way) and check all the tender wheels and the loco driving wheels are all pickup up power? Not quite sure if that can work with the bluetooth DCC.

Check the loco to tender wiring is fully plugged in?

[Rallymatt]

Worth checking the wiper contacts on the wheels are a/ picking up power and b/ staying in contact with wheel backs in all extreme of sideways travel… but my no1 place to look would be at the back to back measurement on leading bogie wheels. 10.2mm is absolute min but nearer 10.4 is ideal. It’s possible to get a micro short that is the cause of the loss of power (decoder shuts down to protect itself)

[Gregory-374918]

Ralymatt, Thanks, Aha I see, are you meaning that the leading wheels short out the point just where it diverges? When I first took the loco new out of its box one of the front wheels just fell off so I just pushed it back onto the axle, that might be it. Still not great to have a fault "out of the box" .

Update: Thanks so much for your help Rallymatt, I have rung the shop I bought it from and they have kindly agreed for me to drop it back with them tomorrow. The wheel at the front was basically wobbling and has now fallen off again.

Update2. Took it back to Gaugemaster and they swapped it for a brand new one ! Can`t fault their excellent after sales service. Wheel seems ok on this one so far!

[Rallymatt]

G3, yes, it can happen on any scale or manufacturer that if the gauge is under it can cause a micro short as the offending wheel passes over the ‘frog’ area where the rails meet up in centre. Obviously that is where two opposite polarity rails are close.

Seems there may be a batch issue as this has been mentioned on a couple of occasions. If the shop swaps the loco check before you leave, they might ‘fix’ the errant wheel. Annoying but not too major to correct. 👍

[John-357061]

Agree got the digital Scotsman set and the front boogie wheel had come off. Pushed it back on. Derailments, stopping suddenly. Did manage to adjust to the correct width apart. Fixed issue.

[Rallymatt]

I have referred to this on a few other posts, a handy and often easily available tool to help set B2B on TT:120 is a standard set of pliers. Check the measurement across the back of the jaws, most will be 10.32 - 10.45, you can measure with a vernier caliper or a digital caliper although most of these are not that accurate but should be close enough. Make sure the plier jaws are clean and free of any knarled edges, so you don’t scratch wheel backs, particularly important on wheels that are power collecting. A polish with some very fine wet and dry cleans them well or treat yourself to a new pair (Draper Redline are perfect and not expensive) Push the back of the jaws between the wheels, it will spread them nice and evenly to on spec setting.

DCC Concepts have produced a B2B wheel gauge for TT:120 track standard but it’s at the minimum acceptable width 10.2mm, NMRA target for gauge is 10.5mm

The reason why there is a range isn’t just a manufacturing tolerance though. It’s to allow certain locos/rolling stock to cope with tight model railway curves. I have never adjusted the driving wheels on my Pacifics, just the front bogie and tender wheels, on my continental diesels, all the Hornby tankers but not the vans or coaching stock. On the Arnold ferry vans I set these to 10.3, they are LWB but on two fixed axles. If you set them wider and they can drag a little on tighter curves.

Getting B2B set will eliminate almost all micro shorts and derailment issues because track and wheels are now made to much finer tolerances.