Model Railroading > Athearn SD-38 Derailment Problems?

I got two of the beautiful Athearn SD-38s, 253, and 254, they were in the used section but had not been ran much if at all by looking at the clean wheels. They derail frequently and split switches. I tried reguaging the wheels slightly and they operate better but still derail. I picked up 252 earlier this month partly to see if it has the same problem, it does. Has anyone else experienced these problem with their Athearn SD-38s or other six axle Athearns? Also any suggestions as to corrective action? My Atlas GEs stay on our track and so does the Proto 2000 SD-60-M so I don't think it is the track.

Here are pictures of said units, beautiful but not keen on staying on the track.

Thank You

Jim

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Okay, we'll get the obvious question out of the right now.

Are the wheels "in gauge"? Have you checked then against a NMRA standards gauge?

Check that the trucks/wheels sit flat on the rail. A friend has a Athearn SD40 that was derailing because of a worped truck............Joe

Like ESPEE5318 sais, put the locos on a peice of glass or other flat surface and see if all the wheels touch. Could be a warped truck. Search the list for how to fix, I've forgotten.
Good looking locos, BTW!

PHL

Paul Liddiard
Spanish Fork, UT

Could the ends of the trucks be hitting the steps? Which would limit the amount of swing the truck has. Just a thought.

DMIR230

Are you using Atlas #6 switches. If so, I had a similar problem with some, not all of my locos. I ended up cutting a little bit of the end of the movable track, and that solved my problem. You only want to cut off less that an 1/8".

Ron Evans
Golden Valley, AZ

Paul is on the mark for the truck problem but I would suggest removing the trucks and checking them alone. The weight of the engine may push the truck down making it look OK. I've had this problem with SD70 Athearn engines, just a little warp will do it.

Ed

My Conrail SD40-2 dummy will not stay on the rail ether. Its a Athearn

lizzard_45 Wrote:
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> Good looking locos, BTW!
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> PHL

Thank you, I guess for what these pictures lack in scenery they make up for in big orange locomotives (plus an SP GP-40-2 sneaking in below).

Thank you all for all the tips. Some of the wheels are out of gauge and alignment. We may box these three units until after our open house here in November and take them apart after that for the test of the trucks. Definitely not getting rid of them because they show as being Discontinued on the Athearn site. My dad also suggested we take them to the Dayton NMRA show where there are supposed to be other model railroaders there to diagnose problems with locomotives.

Based on the experience of these DT&I units should we feel confident in procuring more Athearn six axle units or avoid them? In particular various SD-40-2s and SP Tunnel Motors.

BTW: Our Binkton Belt and Terminal Railway happens to be the only place where a number of railroads interchange. It allows for a lot of fun running a fictitious railway in a city that exists only in my dad's basement.

Jim

By request: I also have included our track plan. It is not to scale and has been revised several times I originally drew this out using Paintbrush so the clarity may not be totally there. The black lines are the railroad as it is now. The purple lines are the interurban and trolley system but are not definite and are in the process of being constructed. The green line indicate the edge of the table and an access hole that will be enclosed in a sheet metal products factory.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/09 12:07 by tq-07fan.

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Have you checked the wire placement inside the shells. You said they were used, so maybe the prior owner did some modification inside causing one of the truck towers to hit a wire and not be able to turn completely. Try running them without the shell and see what happens. I had this same problem one time on one of my engines, but I was the culprit and had to redo my own work.

aj