Locos derailing

11351 Views 53 Replies 16 Participants Last post by Ozzie21, May 27, 2006

Gary

Discussion Starter · May 18, 2006

QUOTE The diesels and DMUs are ok but some Hornby steam derail quite regularly. None of my German locos derail at all!

How common is this. The only issue I ever had was with a Bachmann Class 4MT when the front bogie kept coming off on a certain point. The answer was to not run the loco across that part of the layout.

The thing is Hornby and Bachmann don't deliberately design trains to derail, and surely they carry out extensive testing prior to putting a model into production.

And Hornby have their roadshow and their trains run for many hours each day and do not derail.

So lets have a definitive discussion on this subject.

Why do trains derail and how can you prevent this from happening?

Convince MRF members that it is the loco that is at fault and not some other aspect.

And what makes German steam locomotives stay on the track better than British locomotives?

German steam locomotives have smaller wheels and run more slowly as HO scale speeds are slower than OO so is this a factor?

Do German locomotives have bigger flanges than their British counterparts?

Happy modelling
Gary

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Dennis David

· #4 · May 18, 2006

QUOTE German steam locomotives have smaller wheels and run more slowly as HO scale speeds are slower than OO so is this a factor?

This has got to rank up there with "It's raining and the track is wet" Gary, you've out done yourself.

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Dennis David

· #6 · May 18, 2006

QUOTE it would seem reasonable to conclude that the problem lies with Hornby design

I would hate to make the assumption that there is some design flaw. I would much prefer it to be a manufacturing problem that can be fixed with the checking of gauge, adding weight, coupler height or binding or bad track that effects the Hornby locomotives more than others. It is true howevre that Germans locomotives have out of scale wheels compared to American locomotives and from what I have seen they also do operate them at a faster speeds and more often unattended. The US is the capital of Cab Control and slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww moving trains.

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Dennis David

· #8 · May 19, 2006 (Edited by Moderator)

This is what I have been trying to get across since I joined this board. I have been lucky in the fact that I travel quite often and can see what the different groups (Continental, UK and American) are up to. The American hobbyist can be quite a fanatic when it comes to flange depth and track code. They'll just work to get it right. I and I think Neil are more interested in watching the trains run where in the UK they are somewhere in between. They I think are more about staging and running their trains through a scene. I only say this because the majority of layouts I saw in the UK were very small and had scenery only in certain places with fiddle yards and what have you in areas where you were not to focus on.

We have an organization in the United States that's quite large called the ETE or European Train Enthusiasts. Whenever I have seen their layouts in operation they seem to run their trains at 100 mph and yes passenger trains are very popular with them.

These differences also lead to what features are important in DCC. Multi-train consists are very important in the US. In Europe they are into automation so computer interfaces, and things like RailCon are very important.

Hopefully we can all learn from each other and more importantly find enjoyment in seeing what each of us is doing.

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