A1 and Tender derailing on points. I can`t see what is causing it ?

[Gregory-374918]

If only things actually worked !

I am having lots of issues re derailments. I have seen the posts about the leading bogie an the A1 sometimes falling off the tracks and have this problem randomly, but I am also having issues with the A1 tender appearing to ride up on something when going over points. it doesn`t happen on all of them or all of the time, just sometimes. Annoyingly I have now nailed all my track in place.

As the tender approaches a facing point, just after the tender wheels go past the moving head of the diverging flanges it seems to rise up on something and then derail. I can`t for the life of me see what it is rising up on. Is it just distorted point geometry or is there some common thing that causes this, e.g. some part of the spring mechanism or something? At the point where it rises up, if passively moving it unpowered, the tender seems to rock from side to side/up and down when sitting at the divergence of the points but I cant see what it is rocking on ! .

I am only hoping if I get my pre ordered HST and class 50 they don`t also keep falling off the tracks.

[Moccasin]

Have you checked the underside of your locomotive? The screws on the drawbar holding the tender to the locomotive sometimes work loose. One of the screws in my Flying Scotsman fell out completely but was derailing it over points before it came out, so it’s worth a check.

[Gregory-374918]

Have you checked the underside of your locomotive? The screws on the drawbar holding the tender to the locomotive sometimes work loose. One of the screws in my Flying Scotsman fell out completely but was derailing it over points before it came out, so it’s worth a check.

 

 

Thanks for the tip, but no, doesn`t seem to be it in my case.

[david_watts1]

The back to backs on the wheels, maybe??

[ntpntpntp]

It can be useful to video it travelling very slowly over the points, sometimes that reveals what's catching/riding up that you don't see just by eye.

Check for anything hanging low - screws, brake rigging, wires, couplings etc.

Could be a back-to-back problem but I don't think I've read any reports of b2b issues with the tender wheels?

Check the track joiners are all correct and no bumps in nearby rail joints? No track pins sticking up? Any dog-legs at the joints leading into the points?

The above are all obvious things which you've probably already checked, but need to be systematic about diagnosing the cause.

[david_watts1]

I noticed on Peachy's latest video that the petrol tankers were 'jumping' the points somehow, but not actually rerailing.

[Gregory-374918]

I noticed on Peachy's latest video that the petrol tankers were 'jumping' the points somehow, but not actually rerailing.

YES ! I just googled and found that video, that's the exact issue, yes, as seen towards the end of that video. Except with the tender the "bump" derails the whole thing.

[Rallymatt]

I am a big mouth when it comes to back to back settings, it’s always been a thing with any railway, model or real, but often overlooked. I have had an issue with tender wheel gauging on one loco, easy fix and no problem since, it was more related to Peco points though.

If your track is ballasted, do check for stray pieces trapped in check rails or on inside edge of rails. Then check the B2B 👍

[Stratman 47]

This solved it for me. So if nothing loose or hanging down, wheels clean and back to back measures in spec try this.

I had exactly the same issue and managed to cure it so hopefully this will help. All of my track is Hornby and although layout is my own design I have only used the original Eastener track plus all of the track packs so no mixing and matching and is all fixed to a level baseboard.

I noticed that the derailment only happens on one left hand point and only going forwards in the straight ahead direction so I suspected the point rather than WW's front tender axle as runs perfectly and smoothly on all other points with all loco and tender wheels remaining in contact with the track and no jumping atall.

I took a video with WW in the straight ahead direction and noticed that the jump happened where the moving straight rail meets the front of the frog. Took another video with point set to left and ran through perfectly with no jump. This suggested to me the problem is either the point rail or the plastic frog front.

On close inspection using my magnifying headset I found the culprit. The straight rail is not completely upright leaning very slightly towards the left and looking along at rail level I could see a tiny bit of the frog wall where I would expect to see a smooth line. So tiny, invisible without magnifier, but just enough for the front left tender wheel to catch as it reached the frog causing it to jump and derail.

Whilst observing through my headset I very carefully used tweezers (not thin nose pliers as too aggressive and likely to deform the rail), to gently re-align the rail upright until I couldn't see the little black bit so rail and frog perfectly aligned. Perfect fix and runs through point effortlessly in all directions. It sounds complicated but is really easy using a well lit magnifying lens. Keith (kenda47)

[Fishmanoz]

Gregory, have you read the sticky topic right at the top of this forum. That’s where all the standard derailing problems are covered with solutions.

[Fishmanoz]

Stratman, could you please do 3 things for us with your Edit menu:

1. delete your repeated post. This is a new user trap as when you press reply, it often takes a little while to respond.
2. between your first and second paras, delete the extra carriage return, the forum adds one automatically. Another trap.
3. in your second para, insert some carriage returns to break it into a number of shorter paras as these will be much easier to read

Please don’t take this as criticism, I’m only looking to improving your value as a forum contributor.