I have several sprung LGB R3 radius switch tracks (turnouts) on my railway. 99% of the time all of my rolling stock passes through them without issue. All of my rolling stock has metal wheels and added weight. Recently I purchased a few LGB Toytrain freight cars. Metal wheels and weight were added. For some reason these cars are giving me a bit of a headache on one of my sprung turnouts.

I checked the spring and cleaned any debris from under the moving points. It’s odd that this should happen. All of my other rolling stock is either of the LGB field railway type or LGB full size freight and passenger cars.

I will say that my USA Trains Overton passenger cars give me the least trouble of any piece of rolling stock I have.

Do the toytrains have 2 axles or 4? I think it is a weight issue because those cars are lite.

I would also suggest checking the wheel gauge to make sure they are the same as the ones on the cars that don’t give you problems.

Could it also be a side to side movement of the axle in the journals?

You can also try rolling the car by hand through the switch by pulling the coupler which might reveal a pinch point.

If you have a source for spring steel you could make a lighter weight spring that requires less force to throw.

All the spring need do is move the points and hold them to the stock rail.

I get mine at a Model Airplane hobby shop.

John

Yes, the “spring” doesn’t need to be all that strong. On my scratch-built switch, it was simple a brass rod, with a pivot point somewhat off center on the rod.

Also, on the 2 axle LGB stuff, the axle sets (trucks) swivel, and that can cause issues. In the KaDee coupler kits for those cars, they have some spring holders and springs, to encourage those trucks to self center. You might want to look into doing something similar to your cars.

Could you be more specific than it giving you a headache?

Have you gotten down at track level and seen exactly what happens? Does the wheel ride over the points? Do the points move at all? Is this on a particular route (straight vs. diverging?)

Greg

Dan, Todd mentioned it could be a weight problem. To check that, take some small plastic freezer or sandwich bags and put several ounces of ballast, sand, whatever in them and put them in the cars, if possible, or on top. That should quickly let you know if more weight would solve the problem.

I believe I have overcome the derailing dilemma at the switch points. Today I spent some time watching the freight cars pass through the switch. The switch track in question is a left hand R3 radius. The train always enters from the curved portion, because that’s the way I have the reverse loop set up. As the left wheel reaches the spot where it has to move the point, it rides up over it.

Not all of the cars derail. But all of the cars have the same amount of weight.

Lead sheet wrapped around the axles and blocks of lead fastened to the underside of the frame. The blocks of lead are 1" x 1 1/4" x 1/2" with an additional 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/2" block added under the initial block. The lead sheet is 1/16" x 1 1/4" wrapped around the axle three times.

I installed a new spring on the points and cleaned under the throw bar, again. Today there were no derailments. It’s odd though that some of my sprung points seem to have a stronger spring and cause no issues.

To answer Todd’s question, the cars giving me trouble are two axle cars. As mentioned in an earlier post, my field type and standard size rolling stock with four axles rarely cause any issues.

Sometimes I have to clean the spring switches on my railroad, because the dirt and grit cause extra drag on the points. Its rare when I have to do that, but I do it maybe once or twice a season.

I have to clean my turnouts more often, David. Most of them get sunlight but the one that gives me the most trouble is in shade all of the time. So the grit that does get into it never really has a chance to dry out. I spray WD40 on the springs, from time to time, but not the moving points of the turnout. I find it best to leave them dry. The springs I use are from Home Depot. They sell small containers of light gauge, assorted springs. Some of the better springs to use are the ones that hold the chain up on storm doors. They are light gauge and can be cut in half to get two springs out of one.

I just rebent the springs inside the Aristo manual switch machines. And I keep the ballast low on my switch ties, so the switch is almost sitting on top of the ballast. This minimizes the stuff that gets into the moving parts. I do have to pick out a stone from the works quite often, but I seldom have to clean the ties so the points slide easily. Like I said, once, or maybe twice a year, I have to clean them with Simple Green.

You know WD-40 stands for “Water Displacement formula 40”… if the throwbar area gets wet, maybe WD-40 would be worth a try.

If it us usually dry I would try graphite powder.

One thing I have found that works great is Lock Ease:

Graphite with a penetrating carrier. The carrier helps carry the graphite to all the nooks and crannies, and then it dries out leaving a nice film of graphite.

Greg

Dan wrote… “To answer Todd’s question, the cars giving me trouble are two axle cars. As mentioned in an earlier post, my field type and standard size rolling stock with four axles rarely cause any issues.”

Then I think it is a problem with the swivel axles that LGB uses on their shorter rolling stock like David mentioned. LGB designed it like that so the cars can go through tight curves. If the wheel base was the length of say a Aristo or Bachmann 2 axle car and they were fixed in place like those they would bind through tight curves.

I think you need to get down to watch these cars go through the switch both with the engine pulling and you grasping the coupler and pulling the car through to watch for binding or pinching.

Does the car have the same problem if you turn it 180 degrees and have it approach the trouble spot?

Since you are using LGB 1600 switches you could take one of these cars and drill a small hole in the undercarriage for a screw to stop the swivel action.

Good luck

Maybe I’m missing the point, but reading the post by Dan (the op), instead of moving the point, the wheel climbs up over it.

Hard to blame this on the turnout, most likely either a knife edged flange on the truck or insufficient weight.

Greg

If the points move easily then I would have to agree with Greg. Since the whole car probably has to tip, for the wheel to climb the point rail, I would suspect that the car is probably too light.

I’ve considered the knife edge of the wheels as Greg mentioned. I use Bachmann metal wheels on most of my stock. Certain cars are fitted with LGB ball bearing wheels. The flanges of these wheels are sharper than the Bachmann flange. I am aware that the LGB wheels, be they BB or plain do track better than any other wheels I have tried.

did you have a sharp look at the rail profile of that turnout?

with older LGB there are two tipes of profile. one has less vertical sides on the railhead. (the railheads being broader on their lower part, than at the upper end) this tipe is easier climbed up by light rolling stock.

edit: and the smaller the flange, the better they climb (because of the angle, the flange has to the railhead-side)

resolve by filing the offending railhead-side more vertical.

The OP said:

“I have several sprung LGB R3 radius switch tracks (turnouts) on my railway. 99% of the time all of my rolling stock passes through them without issue.”

I think it would be a mistake to modify the turnout when it works with 99% of the rolling stock.

It’s the 1% of his rolling stock that is the issue.

Greg

I would agree. That one car, or few cars, needs to be scrutinized to see what is different about them to make them mess up.

But on Korm’s side of the argument, my one LGB tender would climb the rails on my one curve. It was the only car to do so. But it was because the rails were narrow in gauge at that point. So I did have to fix the track, so that one car would behave.

So it is possible its the rails being somewhat “off” is interacting with those cars. But my fist inclination would be to try and fix the cars.