International Society of Large Scale Model Railroaders

LGB switch causing derailments

I have had the wide radius LGB switches outside for about 2 plus years now.  They sit out there with little or no protection. Most recently I had one car derailing and several others having some issues with one switch.  I observed a problem with the switch and corrected it.

The solution was simple and I used the ever faithful dremel as seen below.  The particular sanding head I chose seemed to be the most effective

On the left, you can see the the wheels climbing on the switch.  When I looked at the point, it was evident that it was sligthly bow'd in.  Look at the below overhead photo of the switch.  I ran my finger along the side and could feel the point very noticeably.

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In looking at the photo below, I took an extreme close up [wonderful, that Nikon camera] and you can see that I filed the offending point down.

I can only guess that the heat caused this switch to flex and stretch.  Eventually, it became a little too tight for some of the cars to make it.  Problem solved.