It must not be!! It should be just as exciting now as it was on that Christmas morning when you opened that first train set and your eyes popped with excitement?
What is wrong with my layout you ask yourself. The trains keep derailing and I cannot seem to get smooth action for any length of time. Is it my engine? My cars? My track?
Relax and sit back because there are some straightforward things that you can check to get that layout operating smoothly and make it really enjoyable. You will even be able to proudly show your accomplishment to all your acquaintances.
There are at least eight things that you can check to see what is causing your derailments.
Most derailments take place on curves. Why? Because your radius of that curve is not smooth and continuous. Go back and check the area where derailments occur and measure the curve. Be sure to go back to where you marked the original radius and measure to the middle of the track. It must be smooth for the entire traverse of that radius.
If the gauge is too tight on turnouts, frog assemblies or joints you will have problems. When you find the gauge out of line, a suggestion I learned is to use a soldering iron to slightly heat the rail so that it can be adjusted to the correct gauge.
Then be sure to examine all track joints because a track joint that is improperly connected will leave a slight unevenness between the track sections. Your finger can detect these areas and a small file can be used to make the joints smooth.
Sometimes the switch points on the turnouts will not join the rails smoothly and need to be also filed.
Do you know that a number of couplers might be too long and catch on the rails or turnout rails and cause the rolling stock to derail? Check the recommendations of the manufacturer for adjusting the couplers.
The heaviness of the rolling stock can be too light and when traversing the curves that they might be pulled above the track and derail? Adding a small amount of weight and keeping the center of gravity as low as possible will solve that trouble. You want to make sure that all wheels touch the rails evenly at all times.
Are all your wheels moving freely? Properly aligned? Or out of gauge? Check to see that the wheel carriages do not crab and force the wheel flanges into the rails thus causing them to be conveyed up and over the rails causing a derailment.
A minute drop of lightweight oil can solve a myriad of problems. Just be sure to check the manufacturers recommendation for lubricating the locomotives and use the oil sparingly on the wheels. Remember that oil attracts dust and dust is one of the model train enthusiasts biggest problems for a smooth operation.
Most manufacturers provide very good to excellent quality so with a small amount of maintenance on a regular basis you can have a smooth running model train layout.
Fred Roller is a retired salesman who grew up in Central Pennsylvania where his father was a steam engineer on the Pennsy, Penn Central, Conrail and then Amtrak. He lived near the tracks and has been active in the hobby since 1950 when he received his first train for Christmas. Fred welcomes you to visit online train store located at http://www.Mytoytrainsonline.Com and check out train sets in most gauges.
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