Turnout derailment

[CraigB]

Has anyone experienced this problem?  Have a layout using ho nickel-silver ez track with 5 different turnouts.  Only SOME of my rolling stock constantly derails passing over only one of the turnouts.  Locos never derail there.  Some of the rolling stock passes through fine.  When I push the rolling stock that does derail through by hand both forward and backward, they dont derail.  They only derail when they are being pulled by a loco.  Im stumped.

[JonJet]

Are Your cars properly weighted?

The standard is 1oz + 1/2oz per inch of length

6 inch car = 1oz + 3oz = 4 oz total

Are the wheels rolling freely?

Are the trucks loose enough to move side-to-side easily?

All these things go away when Your finger is on top of the car pushing down and thru

[CraigB]

I was thinking about adding weight.  But when I push the cars back and forth by hand, im pushing from in front and back, putting no pressure from the top.  I will go ahead and add weight anyway.  Cant hurt.  What do you normally use for weight?  Thanks.

[jward]

Do you own an NMRA guage? If so, have you checked the wheels of the offending cars to see if they are in guage? Have you checked the rails particularly around the frog and points to see if they are in guage as well? All of this is in addition to properly weighting the cars. Also, have you looked at the coupler trip pins? Those car hang too low and should never touch the rails on a switch, or the roadway part of a rerailer. If they do, carefully adjust the ends upward with a pair of pliers.

For the record, I have found that Bachmann SIlver Series cars are properly weighted right out of the box. The cars from the train sets, though, could use a little more. Pennies are a cheap way to add this weight. Anything else you use is going to cost far more than the few pennies it takes to bring an otherwise good running car up to weight.

[CraigB]

Thanks for the advice Jeff.  I bought some 1/4 oz steel wheel weights with sticky backs.  Cost more than a few Pennies for sure, but not too terribly expensive.  I don't have the guage you mentioned.  I'll look into getting one.  Funny you mentioned the box cars from the train sets.  It's mostly the cars from the original Bachmann Rail Chief set that was my first purchase that are giving me the most trouble.

[Terry Toenges]

I bought one of those round containers of fishing weights so I have various size weights. I've also used lead sheet that I can cut to fit and bend. That comes in handy for steam locos. I put pieces under the pilot and under the domes and in the cab.

[JonJet]

Thanks for the advice Jeff.  I bought some 1/4 oz steel wheel weights with sticky backs.  Cost more than a few Pennies for sure, but not too terribly expensive.  I don't have the guage you mentioned.  I'll look into getting one.  Funny you mentioned the box cars from the train sets.  It's mostly the cars from the original Bachmann Rail Chief set that was my first purchase that are giving me the most trouble.

I've purchased plenty of those sets in N Scale...just to increase the numbers as I restarted a high school hobby a couple years ago
I sometimes had to double the weight of the cars to get them to standard

For the HO portion of My layout I've often added mfgr weight plates from discarded rolling stock...effectively nearly doubling the weight of the original car

Keep in mind the NMRA is a minimum guideline...a shade heavier never hurts

[CraigB]

Thanks for all the advice guys!  I'll be adding the weight in the next couple of days.  I'll let you know if it solves the problem.

[CraigB]

Adding the weight did the trick.  No more derailments.  Thanks again for all the advice.  BTW, if anyone is interested, the wheel weights I used made it very easy to add the weight.  "CK Auto" Steel Adhesive Wheel Weights.  They come in flat, square 1/4 oz pieces with peel and stick backing.  I added 1 over each truck on the shorter cars and added a third right in the center on the longer cars.  Worked great!