LGB Toy Train wagons - bogies slow in straightening up after curves

[Gerard]

Small correction:
When both axis are not too far away from each other the bend spring is fitted only in both wheel basis and not in the bsic structure of the car.

 

[playmofire]

Many thanks for your post and photos, Gerard. I shall look closely at these.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

I thought the idea of the spring to both wheels made it so turning one wheel, helps cause the other to turn.

Likewise straightening one wheel causes the other to straighten.

So once "in" the curve and the wheels turn, there is no longer any other force on the wheels pivoting.

By putting a spring between the pivoting wheel and the chassis, then there is constant resisting force ALWAYS during a curve.

Of course you will say the spring should be chosen to be of light force, and then we are right back to eliminating the rotating friction of the wheelsets to allow you to minimize the spring.

I submit, reducing this friction would help EVERY implementation, indeed even an unmodified car.

Greg

 

[Gerard]

For short cars the spring has to be made as one iron wire straight between both rotating axes.

 

[trammayo]

There is nothing wrong with the idea and, indeed, in the 12" to the 1ft world there was a prototype! Leeds City Tramways had a batch of trams (streetcars) that ran on a pair of single axle trucks. They were known as the "Pivotals". However, when the cross link system became worn, the axles didn't always return to the straight. The engineering department remove those links and made the the trucks rigid. So, as well as being the longest "rigid" trucked cars on a typical street tramway system, they helped wear out the track curves as well as the wheesets! Where the curves were at their tightest, permanent water fountains were introduced to help lubricate the track.

 

[Madman]

Hello Playmofire,

May be i have the solution for your wheel turning problem and your decoupling problem as well.
I used to have the same wheel turn problem with axis not returning to their straight position.
I solved it by applying a thin carbon steel wire of thickness of 1 to 1.2 mm as a bending spring.
The wire is fitted into two drilled holes opposite to each other, one in de rotating wheel construction
and the opposite end into the basic structure of the train car. Both holes are at the same level
so the spring can move free.
After each turn the wheel axis is turned back to its straight postion. This is also a great advantage when
you must put the car on the rail, especially with cars having double axis at each end.
See the pictures as examples.

About the decoupling problem using two hooks. I buil myself a simple item from flat 2 x 15 mm aluminium
with one leg 10 cm long perpendicular to the other of 80 cm long. using this i can decouple from a standing position.
I use this item also to pull and push cars when necessary !

Have a nice day !
Gerard

I am not understanding the purpose of springing a piece of rolling stock with four wheel bogies.

 

[Madman]

In the past, I inserted a screw in the swirling bogies of ToyTrain rolling stock. I have since removed those screws with the exception of the last axle on the caboose. I found that since nothing was pulling that last axle straight, it helped to prevent some infrequent derailments.

 

[Riograndad]

Way back when I first started out I was using starter set LGB 2 axle cars and found that if coupled together there was no problem with the moving trucks apart from the last axle of the train which never seemed to return to the correct position so as a quick fix I strung an elastic band between the trucks and that seemed to help(a little),these cars are now packed away and never used,the only one still in use is a LGB bobber caboose which was converted to a track cleaner with the LGB undercar skids but when used I always run a 4 axle car behind so the trucks return to normal.

 

[Madman]

Way back when I first started out I was using starter set LGB 2 axle cars and found that if coupled together there was no problem with the moving trucks apart from the last axle of the train which never seemed to return to the correct position so as a quick fix I strung an elastic band between the trucks and that seemed to help(a little),these cars are now packed away and never used,the only one still in use is a LGB bobber caboose which was converted to a track cleaner with the LGB undercar skids but when used I always run a 4 axle car behind so the trucks return to normal.

What a novel idea ! I hadn't considered doing that.

 

[Gerard]

Gents, i can add an interesting improvement idea to my first solution of a spring between the center of both axis.
Somebody told me that by doing so the distance between both fixation points on both axis changes when the axis turns.
The trick he told me to prevent this change in length was to mount the spring at the opposite sides of the two axis!
Then the length between the fixation points of the spring stays nearby the same!
Gerard