old brass in atlas 83 code turnouts

tex shalter skriver:

Can you describe the kind of trouble ?

Klaus

they bind where there isnt much space between plastic form and the rails. Nor do they seem deep enough

The only thing you can do then is grind out the flange ways to a larger size or to be more practical use code 100 rail which will accept a larger variety of wheel types.

tex shalter skriver:

Damn.........

So the flange of the wheels are too big.

Grind down the flanges, change the wheels or accept that you have to run on code 100 track

Klaus

On 2/29/2008 7:29 AM tex shalter spake thus:

I won't, unlike another respondent here.

This is asked out of ignorance, as I've never dealt with this problem, but would it be possible to take something like a modified hacksaw blade and deepen the path of travel through the turnouts and crossings where they bind now? It seems as if you'd only have to cut through a little bit of plastic; would this help, or am I crazy?

Hacksaw - I'll give it a shot

Curious - how much older? I'm having a hard time imagining quality brass locomotive models with old euro-style pizza cutter flanges. I mean, RP-25 has been out a long time, and even Code 70 should be no problem.

"tex shalter" wrote

Well yes, but when were they *made*? Some -not all- of the old 1950s Japanese brass locos had flanges that were pretty deep, so we're wondering if that might be your problem.

You should check the back-to-back distance of the loco wheel sets anyway.

Good remedy and you are crazy! Oh yah - your Mother dresses ya funny too...

My first step would be to check everything with a NMRA standards gauge. Make sure everything's done properly.

Are the locomotives falling between the rails? It's possible the track's either too wide or the wheels are set too narrow. The standards gauge would tell you what's happening. (ICYI, I tend to use the wheel spacing and track spacing functions most on my gauge.)

check the 2-1/2" inch molded plastic crossing ? It's not my flextrac that's causing problems

Yes, in fact I've modified turnouts this way. (Actually, I filled the frogs with epoxy, and sawed in narrower and shallower flangeways, because I had the opposite problem -- the turnouts were too sloppy, not too tight. That was, oh, about 30 years ago).

But I do not recommend messing with the turnouts.

Tex Shalter mentions binding. This suggests that some of those older brass locos have tight wheel gauge on one or more wheels - that was a common problem with those older brass locos (that, and terrible motors.) Tex, buy an NMRA standards Gauge, and check the wheels. If any are tight, you should be able to remove them from the engines, and use a wheel puller to pull the wheelset into gauge. (North West Short Line makes one.)

Further musings on messing with the turnouts:

The deep flanges can be accommodated by deepening the flangeways, but the binding means that back-to-back and/or check-gauge is the problem. If _all_ his locos exhibit exactly the same behaviour, then widening the flangeways would work (opposite the frog, _not_ at the frog -- you want to pull the wheels away from the frog so they won't go up the wrong sides.) However, then his newer locos will most likely go up the wrong side of the frog, because the check rail will then no longer pull the wheel over far enough.

IOW, it's the wheels. You can't mix wheel standards, which is what Tex is doing by running older locos with newer ones.

HTH

Change the wheels.

What older brass do you have. Most all brass will run on code 70 rail however I don't know much about Atlas switches.