Steel Wagons - Bogie Help Required

[MarshLane]

Evening all,

I am in need of some help/advice on solving a problem.  I have a rake of five of these bogie bolster wagons that were built for me probably 15-20 years ago in 7mm.  

 

 

The wagons themselves are nice, BVWs I think, and ok the wax castings for the bogie frames are a bit thick, 3D printed options could be better today, but they nice wagons for a general freight.  However, they have never run well, derailing on pointwork and every given opportunity.  The bogies are mounted on a long screw that is soldered to the use of the wagon, and held with a nut below the brass crossbeam of the bogie frame.  Somebody suggested to me that it was likely there was no room for movement as the bogie rode over undulations in the track, so I placed a small 2mm thick piece of plastic along the thread between the base of the wagon and the top the bogie, giving it some lateral movement.  No success, they derail just as they did previously.

 

 

 

Can anyone offer any thoughts or advice on how to solve the derailing problem?  I am happy to buy new bogies frames and sides if that ends up being required, the wheels are fine, but I would like to resolve the derailing issue.

 

Rich

 

 

[Paul H Vigor]

Just a thought: Might there be a back-to-back wheel gauging issue?

[MarshLane]

15 minutes ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Just a thought: Might there be a back-to-back wheel gauging issue?

 

Ah! You may have hit on something there Paul. I hadn't given that a thought.  The GOG standard shows 29.2 as the max back to back gauge if I have read things right.  All of these axles are 28.3 - so 0.9mm difference.  Could that be the issue?

 

[Paul H Vigor]

To quote Hong Kong Phooey: "Could be!" If you can lay your hands on a suitable 7mm back-to-back gauge it may be worth checking all your wheel sets? They might be fouling point check/wing rails etc?

Edited May 23, 2021 by Paul H Vigor
to add information

[Miss Prism]

Can your bogies roll with respect to each other ?

 

[MarshLane]

56 minutes ago, Paul H Vigor said:

To quote Hong Kong Phooey: "Could be!" If you can lay your hands on a suitable 7mm back-to-back gauge it may be worth checking all your wheel sets? They might be fouling point check/wing rails etc?

I'll get hold of one and double check those.  Nothing else ever really derailed (well not with any consistency!) they were few and far between, but these five you could put money on it within a 10 foot!

 

50 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

Can your bogies roll with respect to each other ?

 

Hmm, not sure about respect to each other, but they can certainly roll independent of each other since putting the plastic piece in - actually a small piece of plastic wire coating that was the same width as the screw.

 

Rich

[Paul H Vigor]

3 minutes ago, MarshLane said:

I'll get hold of one and double check those.  Nothing else ever really derailed (well not with any consistency!) they were few and far between, but these five you could put money on it within a 10 foot!

Let us know how you get on?

[MarshLane]

18 hours ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Let us know how you get on?

 

I will do, C&L do B2B gauges ... but having removed one of the axles this morning, there doesn't seem to be anyway to move the wheel on the axle, so if they are out, I suspect it may require the purchase of 20 new wheel sets, so am contemplating some bogie replacements. I am wondering about designing a replacement 3D bogie as a solid unit with some pin head bearings placed in them.