Heljan 58 derailing on curves

[Mooresby]

Has anyone experienced problems with the Heljan 58 derailing on 2nd/3rd radius curves?

The problem only seems to occur in one direction of travel. 
Ive checked back to backs on the wheels which seem to be ok so a bit stumped. 
Any advice would be gratefully received.

[atom3624]

How are the centre 'floating' wheels?

Mounted OK?

Free movement?

 

My 58 seems fine, but I don't go down to 2nd radius to be honest.

 

Al.

[SRman]

I have four of these Heljan models, and none have exhibited any tendencies to derail (except when there has been "operator error"!).

Check for freedom of swing on the bogies, trying different angles to see if they are catching anywhere. If you have the screw couplings fitted, they can be a pain at times, dropping into the tension lock loops and limiting the swing. 

Generally speaking, Heljan's locomotives have plenty of free movement in their bogies, and the Co-Co designs have the very free-floating centre axles, so are effectively Bo-Bo's with an idler axle in the middle of each bogie doing nothing useful - they are there for appearance only.

[letterspider]

Check that the buffer beam detailing isn't fouling the coupling.

[LNERGE]

How are you getting on with this problem..? I was hoping top find a cure as mine keeps popping it's centre axle off now n then. Last night i took the side frames off one bogie and rain it. No derailments. I put them back on.. Derailments. I slipped a small washer over each spiggot and refitted the side frames again. No derailments. I will experiment further today hopefully.

[Roy Langridge]

7 hours ago, LNERGE said:

How are you getting on with this problem..? I was hoping top find a cure as mine keeps popping it's centre axle off now n then. Last night i took the side frames off one bogie and rain it. No derailments. I put them back on.. Derailments. I slipped a small washer over each spiggot and refitted the side frames again. No derailments. I will experiment further today hopefully.

 

Have you checked the holes in the side frames to make sure there is no moulding flash in them or considered increasing the depth of the hole slightly (obviously without breaking through the axle box).

 

Edit: and if it is one of the Heljan 58s that come with two sets of bogie frames, do the other set do it?

 

Roy

Edited February 2, 2021 by Roy Langridge

[Halvarras]

I recall when the Hymek was first released in 2003 there were some issues with trapped wiring under the cabs limiting bogie swing, may be worth checking.

This model also exhibited extremely fine tolerances around the bogie sideframes compared to anything seen previously, but it ran without problems, at least on level track. However such tight clearances can have repercussions when the tooling begins to age, as demonstrated more recently on a Class 28 Co-Bo from the last production run where excess vertical slack in the Co end bogie pivot allowed the brake linkages on top of the sideframes to catch on the underframe pipe runs. Measuring buffer centres to rail top confirmed it was sitting too low at that end. I managed to fix it with a small washer from the bottom of my bits box but it was a pig of a job to get it into position so hopefully this particular issue does not afflict your Class 58!

[LNERGE]

9 hours ago, Roy Langridge said:

 

 

Edit: and if it is one of the Heljan 58s that come with two sets of bogie frames, do the other set do it?

 

Roy

It did come with extra side frames. I selected a pair and fitted them. Plenty of clearance and problem solved.

[martin_l_jones]

Had a similar issue with a Class 47.

 

The back to back was slightly out, corrected to 14.4mm resolved the issue.