HO Derailments

[George]

My loco keeps derailing on some curves. It is 6 wheels on each set of trucks. My layout is HO in a 1/2 dog bone shape. The 2 outside ends are 40" wide. The radius is 18". Can someone tell me what I need to do to fix this annoying problem?

[trainfanatic]

If you are always derailing at the same spot on your layout, firstly I would check your trackwork. Run your finger along the inside of the rail checking for unevenness.It also sounds like your radius is a little tight - HO should work ok on 18" radius but 22" is much nicer

Hope this helps

Trainfanatic

[George]

I wondered if 18" might be too sharp. Thanks.

[dennis]

I had same problem, check track with track gauge.

[cprailfan]

To make the 6 wheels make it around my tight curves I took every car to the bench and sometimes had to remove some plastic centre beams that restrict the boogie from rotating far enough... Also check width of the wheels with the gauge... Try running the cars around the curve with the centre set of wheels removed and see if this solves the problem... If it does then some car boogie adjustment is in order... Also I used longer coupler shafts to allow for the cars to work together better... This doesn't look so great if your running passenger cars but at least they run around the tight curves...

Good Luck!