Kato rolling stock on Tomix turnouts

[Kiran]

I am beginning to experiment with stuff and running into interesting things. It would be great to get confirmation from folks that I am not doing something wrong.

 

I have a double track oval with Tomix Finetrack. I also have a couple of 541-15 manual turnouts so that the train can switch from the inner to outer loops and vice versa. The Tomix Shinkansens deal with the turnouts just fine. But out of curiosity, I tried running the Kato Amtrak p42 superliner with 2 carriages. The second carriage snags on something on the turnout and derails. I swapped the carriages around to see if it makes any difference with the same result. As long as it is just the locomotive and 1 carriage, seems to be fine. but if I try to add a second carriage, it struggles. This is particularly so when the turn out is set to a position that lets the train proceed on the same track and not switch tracks.

 

I know I will run into issues when trying to mix and match manufacturers but I was just curious to see if I am doing something wrong.

[katoftw]

I'm doubtful that it is because you have using different manufacturers.  I have Kato, Tomix, MicroAce and Greemnax trains, and Kato and Tomix track and haven't had issues.  In the end the tracks are still 9mm wide and the outsode of the wheel flanges are 9.0-9.1mm wide.  The only issue I've had is the tilt mech on the KAto trains causing derailments on curves, but I'll get to that in the next paragraph.

 

Considering you have no issues with one coach being pulled, but issues arise once a second coach is fitted.  I'd be inclide to think it is the couplers pulling the coaches incorrect directions when using your crossovers, and the bogies are twisting, hence the wheel is popping up and over the rails.  Especially if the coaches have the coupler attached directly to the bogies.  I'm unsure of the superliner models to what setup they have.

 

Check the range of movement of both the bogies and the couplers.  And also get down low or eye level and check what it is all doing when the problem actually happens

Edited July 28, 2018 by katoftw

[Kiran]

Looks like the problem might be with bogies on one of the coaches. I guess I have been attaching that same coach as the second one pretty consistently. Compared to bogies on other carriages, 1 set of wheels appears to be recessed in too much. I also got extra coaches and they are all running fine. I have now isolated the problem coach.

[katoftw]

Sounds like the under carriage is just pushed a little too far into the body shell.  I've had it before.  Give the under car parts a light pull and you should hear a small click as it goes back into its rightful place.