UP 4-8-4 some problems

[ftauss]

Bought the Overland set for my son for Christmas. We've got a slowly growing setup in the family room, keeps him away from Daddy's layout!

I know the 4-8-4 is a train set engine but it's not to bad, needing some tweaks.

First the tender trucks tend to open up a bit to much occasionally shedding wheels wich is discoraging him. Some of the freight cars suffer froom the same problem. I also think the tender is to light but adding weight is not an option until I resolve the truck issue.

Would quality metal wheels resolve this possibly? I have some but can't dig them up right now but I'm gonna need 6 axles total. I saw some metal trucks on the Bowser site (Cal Scale?) would that be a better way to go?

Second the pilot truck seems a little squirrely. Is there an easy (or difficult) fix for this? I've had it jump rail a few times, we've both checked the connections the EZ track is correctly joined, thought the joins themselves aren't always that smooth.

Frank

[SteamGene]

If the joints aren't smooth, the track is not connected correctly.  For somebody used to flex track, the fact that the roadbed locks in tight may cause an assumtion that the track has, too.  Not true.  Remove any spring holding the leading trucks down, if possible.  Add weight to the tender, especially the front trucks.  Check the wheel gauge.
Gene

[ftauss]

Gene, you are clearly a wealth of inofrmation and a valuable if biased toward steam resource.

I have very carefully gone over the track as has my son. I use an Optivisor and have a pretty decent feel for the EZ Track. My joiners are clearly on both sides of the joint on the rails. Yet there remains a small misalignment. I got that on my test loop, but my engines are different and seem to do fine. There isn't the glaring "step" you get when the joiner slips under the rail but a very modest step, almost feels sometimes like the ends of the rail tops taper a bit, though I'm sure it doesn't.

Removing the spring helps the front pilot? That seems sort of counter intuitive, what's the physics that makes that work.

The problem with the tender seems to be that the plastic trucks seem a bit wide for the plastic axles. I tried gently bending them in but I think they rebound out after a bit. I've gotten to the point with my own stuff that "trucks, wheels and weight" are obviously the source of and cure for most problems and adjusting or replacing the first, replacing the second and adding the third is a matter of course. The problem I think is just adding weight at this point would simply add more stress to the wheels/trucks and make the axles pop quicker.

That's what I meant by shedding wheels, BTW. The tender doesn't derail, the axles pop out of the truck frame. I'm still somewhat new at this but gauging the wheels ain't gonna help if the axle is to short or the frames to far apart. Hence my query regarding replacent trucks and/or axles. As in are the Bachmann axles a bit undersized since this seems to be a fairly common issue with these newer Bachmann cars. I was talking to one guy at Hobby Lobby who was buying an Overland set a few months back and his set seemsed to have popped all of it's axles in the sealed package, there's even a note on the package referencing the problem and assuring you that you can simply pop the axles back in.

East coast,
West coast,
Diesel or steam,
switcher or road engine.
Just have fun!

Frank

[SteamGene]

Frank,
Yes I have my preferences.   
Perhaps you need to get some replacement wheels.  I wish i could remember which ones have the longer axles, but I can't. 
The removal of the spring gives less pressure on the front truck, thereby adding pressure to the drivers.  If the front wheels are in gauge, the absence of pressure should not cause them to derail. 
I'm of the belief that the NMRA weight standard needs to be looked into.  It comes from a time of much more primitive track, trucks and wheels. 
Gene

[barrowsr]

Frank,

ReBox offers wheels in various axel lengths which might solve the problem.  Of course you could replace the tender trucks with KD trucks with metal wheels.

Robin

[SteveJ]

Frank,

Regarding your point about;
"Second the pilot truck seems a little squirrely. Is there an easy (or difficult) fix for this? I've had it jump rail a few times, we've both checked the connections the EZ track is correctly joined, thought the joins themselves aren't always that smooth".

I wouldn't normally question Gene's solution to remove the spring. My fix for this was not to remove the spring but to bend it a little more, forcing the wheels down unto the rails. 

My son's layout has a EZ track loop that recently starting derailling cars after a year.  It seems that on curves a small misalignment can over time become large misalignment with the continuous striking of the car wheels. a twist with pliers seems to have cured the issue.  Point to me is the track is very well made but we still need to apply some TLC occasionly to stop derailling.

[Anthony08]

I would agree with opening the spring up to press the pilot truck against the train more.  As for the metal wheels idea, that will likely work. I've replaced plastic wheels with metal wheels before, and in some situations, i had to shave down the ends of the axel because it was too wide, so that will likely be a good bet.
I myself have noticed that the track, even when connected correctly, tends to not line up perfectly. It kind of drives me off the wall. I can't wait to get my own layout so I can use flex track and align everything well.

[James Hail]

Overland runner here........I used metal wheelsets on my tender.....works great.As far as the front pilot.......it is a bit cheesy...what i did was take 90 degree pieces of brass and glue them into the channel on the top of the pilot truck between the vertical post and the axles taking up as much slop as possible pushing the axles into the j shaped hook that keeps them retained.

I have my pilot spring installed ,decoder hardwired and tender backup light operational and she runs fine on my layout.......smoke removed for decoder install on top of casting (nce).

It will run fast or slow no derails.........Good runner and quiet.

Jim

Let me know if you need more help w/this engine.......I have owned 2 and currently run one in dcc.