Running with flat spots....


S

ST214

Member
Anyone have any cars or locos with flat spots???

I have a plastic pellet hopper and a loco that have them...not sure how they got them, but they sound realistic going down the tracks.
 
Metal or plastic wheels? Maybe some dirt held up an axle at one time? that is rather an oddity!
I'm thinking of putting some kind of sound unit into a container to simulate a flat spot, it would have to keep in synch with the turning wheels.
 
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A while back, a manufacturer (Aztec?) was producing wheelsets with prefab flat spotted metal wheels. I got some, and initially it was great. After a while, though, it became distracting. I changed back to round wheels, and the flat-spotted ones were lost in the shuffle.
 
They're metal wheels....The loco was in a consist that somehow it was dismissed from the consist while running. I have no clue how the plastic pellet car got them.

Rico said:
Metal or plastic wheels? Maybe some dirt held up an axle at one time? that id rather an oddity!
I'm thinking of putting some kind of sound unit into a container to simulate a flat spot, it would have to keep in synch with the turning wheels.
Click to expand...
 
What does a flat wheel sound like in the prototype? A constant banging?

I'd have thought that cracked gears would make a similar sound.
 
A real flat spot sound like a rythmic banging as the car or engine goes by with the same doppler effect as ahorn. You can hear it before it gets to you, it's really loud when it passes, and then fades away with the rest of the train. On prototype roads, I've seen trains where it seemed like one car out of five had a flat spot. They are almost always caused by hard braking or dragging trucks when the brakes are left applied due to an air line failure. On a model, you should never be able to apply enough force to produce a flat spot on metal wheels. I suspect there was some flaw in the metal to begin with and some running bought it out. It's easy enough to change out the bad wheel on the plastic pellet car. I'd look closely at the engine wheels when the engine is powered from the track with alligator clips. Hold it upside down and look for a small piece of track crud that might be sticking to a wheel. Running a narrow fine file over each of the wheels while they are turning should fix it.
 
ICG/SOU said:
What does a flat wheel sound like in the prototype? A constant banging?
Click to expand...
pretty much. constant, annoying, loud-ass banging. hate that sound. thats the aspect of railroading i wish wouldn't been there. i'd think that filing a wheel or 2 in some old wheel truck will do the job to mmodel flat spot, and i can see why peps will want to model it but that just does not sound right to me
 
ST214 said:
They're metal wheels....The loco was in a consist that somehow it was dismissed from the consist while running. I have no clue how the plastic pellet car got them.
Click to expand...

I thought entering and removing a loco from an MU consist was a lengthy affair. How did that happen?
 
We have a few wiring issues at the club i belong to that we are fixing as we find where they are....sometimes these wiring issues cause the consists to become eskewed.

Only other thing that could have happened is the decoder malfunctioned...wouldn't be the first time, but it would be the first time resulting in flat spots...I looked at the wheels...they are slightly flat on all eight of them in the same spot.


DakotaLove39 said:
I thought entering and removing a loco from an MU consist was a lengthy affair. How did that happen?
Click to expand...
 
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