Throppers

Hi all First post in N gauge page (usually OO through and through) I have a Dapol Pannier tank loco where the orange and grey motor wires have broken off the decoder plug board and I’m not sure which spots to re-attach them to. I’ve attached a pic, can anyone advise where to reattach them? Thanks!

Hi all. Further video below to answer some points raised. Having checked all the rods and crank pins, everything is fine with no snagging or catching at all. Having pushed it along the track it runs along fine but this is a bit of a false test admin reality the drive comes from the centre axle and the front and rear axle are turned by the con-rods.

Hi I have a Hornby Duchess Class 4-6-2 loco R2531 which runs fine in a forward direction but jams in reverse. I assumed a split gear however having removed / inspected all the gears, I can see nothing wrong with them. So I put the wheels back on with the idler gear removed so I can free spin the wheels and have noticed an issue with the front pair of wheels, which jam or pop out of the axle mounts when turned backwards. However when running forwards they are fine. The followong youtube video demonstrates. Any ideas? I’m thinking probably wheel quartering? Thanks Throppers

Ok will try that and let you know. Thanks!

Hi. No I didn’t know F1 could pause the sound. Useful to know. However on the occasions in question the loco has always been at a standstill for a few seconds before I go to shut it down.

Hi all I recently acquired a ESU Loksound V3.5 for my class 37/4 with Legomanbiffo sound and I am very impressed with it. However there is often an issue that when I go to shut the loco down and turn off the sound (by pressing F1 to turn it off), rather than getting the motor wind-down sounds you would expect, the sound just shuts off totally after a second or two. Other times I get the expected wind down. I have tried this on my rolling road and various bits of track around the layout and can find no rhym or reason for when it cuts off instantly and when it shuts down as expected with the wind-down sound. Any ideas? Thanks.

Problem has been resolved by reducing the back to back spacing on all wheels to ~13.9mm. No derailments now even at what would be considered excessive speed for going over points. Barry O - Yes fair point. I started another thread as I realised the title of my original one wasn't very indicative of my problem that needed advice. I found I couldn't change the title so thought I'd start another one with a more obvious title, with the intention of deleting the original thread, which I also then found I couldn't do. Honest mistake, not meaning to clog up the forum.

Problem solved! After doing some fettling with the back to back spacing and reducing it to ~13.9mm, there is no derailment even at excessive speeds. Thanks all for the advice on this one. I'm very revealed that the solution has been a simple one.

So having taken all the wheels off the loco I have found the back to back measurements to be a little close. Increasing the spacing to the proper distance has helped however there are still some points it doesn’t like, so I’m going to try the suggestion of widening the check rail with some plasticard. What thickness of plasticard would you recommend?

Thanks for the tips so far. I have loosened the bogey retaining screw but it doesn’t seemed to have achieved much. There have been a few mentions of check rail and stock rail. Which rails are these? Thanks.

I have an OO gauge Bachmann class 37 which de-rails on points (oddly my other identical loco manages them). I have done various checks and confirm that the back to back measurements are correct using a spacing tool. There is also no rocking on the bogey, all three axles are level and all 3 pairs of wheels are firm on the rails. After doing some further investigation, there appears to be enough bogey swing as when running over the points, the bogey doesn't swing to it's full potential. However, the mechanism of the derailing is the front outside wheel (front left if going over a right turnout and front right when going through a left turnout) jumps off the rail at the gap before the frog, causing it to jump over the frog. The below pics show the loco on approach to the frog and then having jumped off through the gap in the points just before the frog from top and side... Any ideas? I am thinking about what modification I can make to the loco to allow it to manoeuvre over the points. The points are all Peco and Hornby standard radius and it derails on pretty much every set. Thanks in advance.

So I've done some further checking today. There appears to be enough bogey swing as when running over the points, the bogey doesn't need to swing to it's full potential. However, the mechanism of the derailing is the front outside wheel (front left if going over a right turnout and front right when going through a left turnout) jumps off the rail at the gap before the frog, causing it to jump over the frog. The wheel spacing is correct as my back to back tool is a snug fit between the wheels on all the axles however I'm wondering what modification I can make to allow the wheels to pass through the points. The below pics show the loco on approach to the frog and then having jumped off through the gap in the points just before the frog from top and side...

Thanks all for replies so far. To answer a couple of questions raised... The back-to-back has been checked with a proper gauging tool and is fine. The points I'm using are standard Hornby and Peco. Changing them is sadly not really an option as it would mean almost totally re-doing my layout. The problem of the centre axle being low was mentioned... I have checked this on a flat surface and all 3 axles are level (oddly my other B'mann 37 which doesn't derail does have a slightly dropped middle axle!). I will avoid grinding the wheel for now based on advise and see about getting more rotation out of the bogey.

Has anyone any experience of grinding off wheel flanges? I have an OO gauge Bachmann class 37 which de-rails on points as the radius is too tight (oddly my other identical loco manages them but the problem loco bogeys don’t turn as much). I am thinking of grinding off the flanges of the middle wheels on each bogey to help it negotiate the tight curve. Any thoughts?