Echo Valley set, new to the hobby. Derailment issue

[schloob]

While personally would not say I'm "new" to the hobby, just that have not operated trains since I was not much older than my son who just turned 7 this weekend. We had all the grandparents get him the Echo Valley set and he LOVES it(shocker I know). The issue we are having is that it looks like when my son is running the train too slowly it looks like the front wheels of the 2-6-0 derails when it enters the E-Z track crossing gates that we have on the set-up. I have definitely confirmed that the tracks are lined up, as that was an immediate issue when we first put them together. So my question to this long post, are the front 2 wheels as I suspect purely cosmetic and can they be taken off for now? Ultimately we plan on expanding the set and the crossing gates would go into the middle of the set for a town area at which time I'd put the wheels back on when the train would then just be running on all flat track again, it just seems not to be able to take the transition into the gates correctly when it goes too slow. This is at least what it appears is the culprit. Thx in advance for your help/advice in the matter everyone.

[jonathan]

Welcome Schloob,

The short answer is yes, you can run that locomotive without the pony truck--one screw removes it.

Once the pony/lead truck is removed, you can do a little troubleshooting to fix the problem.  Check the wheels to see if they turn relatively free in the brackets that hold the wheels in.  Also, it is rare, but sometimes those little trucks are installed upside down at the factory. Finally, you can add a little weight to the truck to help it track better.  I like to use those little fishing sinkers (b-b sized), squashed flat and glued to the truck over the wheels.  These are just a few of the things you can check to get the pony truck to cooperate better.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Irbricksceo]

One more thing I'll throw in, I've found that sometimes the trucks track better if you tighten the screw a bit, on at least one locomotive I saw an immediate improvement with 1/4 of a turn,