Hi Crew, I bought a Broadway Limited with sound...

[EngineerKyle]

... and I really like it. It's a B&O NW2 Switcher. Timing the coupler crashes to the magnet ramps and the like is a whole new world of play for me. It looks like I'll be hooked on Q sound, now.

BUT HERE's THE PROBLEM.... :cry:


I plowed ahead with my first layout, (a little over a year ago) and my trackwork is fair to good. I've been running Atlas Geeps and Athrean Rolling Stock at a 91% success rate. That means that in the course of 100 individual operations, I have a derailment caused by either a mechanical or operator error nine times. I keep stats. I can live with 91%.

Unfortunately, it seems the BLI switcher is too light/delicate for my trackwork, and it derails often, especially around the turnouts that everything else that travels across my layout can handle. I use code 100. I've examined the wheels on my new BLI switcher, and the cross section of the wheel looks different than what my Atlas locos have. The (flange?) of the wheel seems thinner? and maybe the part of wheel that contacts the rail a little flatter?

Anyway,

Should I expect the BLI to be fussier?

Should I expect switchers in general to be fussier?

Can I do anything, short of repairing and replacing track to help this situation?

Are those wheels different, and maybe designed for code 83?

Anything else I should know? Should try?

Thanks in advance,

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Do you have an NMRA gauge? If not, get one. It may appear to be shaped funy, the outside edge of the gauge is for measuing tunel portals. It has bits on it for measuring clearances on virtually eerything. You can check wheel gauge on your locomotives and track gauge with it. You may have a wheel set out of gauge or some track out of gauge. If you put your track down with nails it is easy to drive them in a little too deep causing the tie to buckle and put the track out of gauge. If your track work is right and all of your wheels are in gauge, you shouldn't have any problems

 

[EngineerKyle]

Yep, Guaged the track, it was little off here and there... the geeps could handle it... but the bli could not.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

You need to fix your track first. Secondly, expect the BLI switcher to be light. There is very little extra space in a switcher, put in dcc and you lose some space that would be filled with weight, add sound and you lose more weight.