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I am using Kato turnouts for my layout. They are the ones that have the hidden switch motors under the track in the false balasted track bed. The switches work great and they make remote control of my turnouts a snap. The only issue I am having is the the plastic frogs at the gore points of the turnouts cause a small uplift to the wheels of my rolling stock. When a car goes from the metal rail to the plastic part there is a slight uplift and when the car leaves the plastic part there is a small drop off. It is causing derailments and poor operation. It looks "hokky" with the cars bumping up and down. It is as if the plastic parts are at c55 and the metal track at c80. Would new truck wheels solve the issue or maybe grinding down the plastic a little solve the problem. I need you help and expertise. Thank you Harlan......
Do you have a dremel tool?
If you are sure it's happening due to an issue with the frog....you might do a test on a single switch. Carefully grind down the suspected trouble spot just enough to make a little difference. And before you do that...check to make sure it's not caused by some difference in track height from an adjoining track section on either end of the switch.
I can't know without seeing it....but this is what my instincts tell me.
The first thing to determine is if the high point is on top of the frog (where the wheel runs) or at the bottom (where it hits the flange). In either case, the dremel/file solution would work, but you need to determine where you need to do the trimming. Also, if it's on top of the frog, new wheels would make no difference, while if its a problem with the flange hitting the bottom of the channel, then wheels with lower flanges would probably solve the problem. What wheels are you running now? A lot of older cars have very high flanges, but newer cars really shouldn't be having issues. Our club has had to do some trimming on a few Peco switches to solve similar issues.
Thank you for the advise. I do have a dremel tool and I have used it in my other fixes and I thought that the dremel might be the answer but I wanted confirmation. My rolling stock was given to me by a friend and it is from about 15 years ago. I suspect the wheel flanges are the real problem. What product (manufacture) has the correct (low flang) wheels? I would like to test a new set of wheels first. Again thanks.....Harlan
Thank you for the advise. I do have a dremel tool and I have used it in my other fixes and I thought that the dremel might be the answer but I wanted confirmation. My rolling stock was given to me by a friend and it is from about 15 years ago. I suspect the wheel flanges are the real problem. What product (manufacture) has the correct (low flang) wheels? I would like to test a new set of wheels first. Again thanks.....Harlan
That is an excellent idea to test with small flange wheels. If you have a local hobby shop you could tell them what you need. Otherwise I am guessing recently produced products from atlas, microtrains, intermountain, kato, athearn, should probably be fine. I would call the online vendor first to confirm your need for the small flange wheels. You can buy just a pair of trucks to do the test.....or maybe just a single truck.
Thank you for the info. I will obtain the items and do the test. More to come.....Harlan
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