Getting started

Discuss model railway topics and news that do not fit into other sections.
Spike
Posts: 43
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 6:24 pm

Re: Getting started

Post by Spike »

Thanks Geoff

i have been messing around, took the center wheels out of the car and it still derailed when coupled to the train, so i pushed it through the points and it was fine, put the wheels back in and pushed it through the points and again fine so that got me thinking.

I looked a little closer and yes the couplings where the problem, I have removed the arms from the couplings on the car in front and the brake car so only the arms from the milk wagon do the work and hey presto it gores through the points at any speed with no issues at all.

I will make sure once I get started on my layout that all my cars have the same couplers on them
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Bufferstop
Posts: 13788
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:06 pm
Location: Bottom end of N. Warks line

Re: Getting started

Post by Bufferstop »

Hornby couplers with the large plastic D are a pain to use with any of the smaller types including Hornby's own. Mine were rounded up and divided into, scrap, give to grandkids, convert to mini couplings and new wheels. The last category provided me with two brake vans and 4 four wheel coaches. Any usefull bodies from the scrap line became grounded van bodies. The coach body from a rail cleaner became the locomen's mess alongside the branch loco shed.
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Richard Lee
Posts: 251
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 6:00 am

Re: Getting started

Post by Richard Lee »

Regarding the Dapol 6-wheel tank wagons, I believe that there is something wrong with the wheels that they supply on these wagons. I bought one once a few years ago and found that it wouldn't run through 30" radius curves out of the box. I changed the 2 outside pairs of wheels and it runs okay on my layout now. I have seen people post that it is possible to just change the centre pair of wheels, but haven't tried to confirm this through personal experience.

Edit: 30" is a far larger radius than you will find on sectional track such as Hornby, Bachmann Branchline or Peco Set Track. I would expect all rolling stock to be able to run on radius 2 curves, which has a radius of a little less than 18". The higher the radius, the gentler the curve, the better the stock runs, which is one reason many people avoid radius 1 curves.
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Bufferstop
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Location: Bottom end of N. Warks line

Re: Getting started

Post by Bufferstop »

It is a known problem with the design, long fixed wheelbase wagons are harder to get round curves easily, putting an extra pair of flanges in the middle, just finishes them off. You have some options;-
* Leave the wheelset out.
* Cut the bottom off the wheels so that it just clears the rail.
* Remove the flanges from the centre wheels.
If you go for removing the flanges it helps to use wheels with the widest tyre and minimise the amount of vertical play, you don't want the wheel to drop of the railhead when it's furthest from being in line.
Growing old, can't avoid it. Growing up, forget it!
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End2end
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Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 9:58 pm
Location: At the end....... and sometimes at the other end

Re: Getting started

Post by End2end »

Bufferstop wrote:* Remove the flanges from the centre wheels.
This is one item I never see for sale anywhere. Perhaps there is a cottage industry in flange-less wheel sets for someone with a lathe?
Thanks
End2end
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Bigmet
Posts: 10172
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:19 pm

Re: Getting started

Post by Bigmet »

Richard Lee wrote:Regarding the Dapol 6-wheel tank wagons, I believe that there is something wrong with the wheels that they supply on these wagons...
Certainly the case when they were first introduced, whenever that was. Dapol had the most extraordinary wheel sets in them, with cylindrical tyres to a right angle flange with next to no transition, and the back of the flange tapered: so it had the old style sharp 'pizza cutter' edge but achieved in a whole new weird way! Predictably enough these would derail very readily, even if the centre wheelset was removed. Tested them in some other reliable four wheel wagons and they caused these vehicles to derail. So it was all the wheel pattern, nothing to do with the vehicle being a six wheeler. I advised the owner to return for refund as 'unfit for purpose', which he did.

Happily Hornby then released a much superior model: these are fine as vehicles: I leave the milk tanker experts to the fidelity of their exterior appearance, as it is a complex subject. They certainly didn't carry the liveries that Dapol and Hornby produced; never saw one in anything but all over grey brown with no markings. The only cleaning they got was inside where the cow juice went...
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Mountain
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Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:43 pm
Location: UK.

Re: Getting started

Post by Mountain »

Cleaning them was an aweful job. Very smelly too.
Bigmet
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Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:19 pm

Re: Getting started

Post by Bigmet »

End2end wrote:
Bufferstop wrote:* Remove the flanges from the centre wheels.
This is one item I never see for sale anywhere.
I will fix that.
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