Hello all,

I am just sharing my success in fixing (temporarily?) the issue of derailment in M-track curved turnouts (5140 and similar).

Background: I came back to the hobby earlier this year and I am using my old M-tracks. I bought a CS3+, a few new digital locos and I am in the process of converting most of my old AC analog locos (from late 60's) to digital. So far great success.

As I am testing the locos on temporary layouts, I noticed that the new locos consistently derail in curved turnouts when facing the inner circle. No issues with any old loco. I read somewhere in this forum that there was a change on the axle dimensions which causes some derailments in old M-tracks.

I found a few posts on this problem - I am glad I was not the first one to face the problem!

https://www.marklin-user...410-5140-turnout-advice: this forum entry highlighted the issue of the loose or out of position "guard rails" (those metal strips that guide the wheels to the right direction). I checked mine and they are all solid in the right place.

https://www.marklin-user...-curved-points-switches: again ... loose guard rails which is not my problem.

https://www.marklin-user...-points-and-derailments: good discussion with focus on the guard rails - not only on the curved turnouts. Again, "mine" were in good shape. This thread also talks about adjusting the wheel spacing using some special tool (sounds scary). Then there is a mention of using adhesive tape.

So, voila!

I ran my attempt with electrical tape. I tried to use shrinking tube on top to better keep the tape in place. Let me just say the shrinking tube didn't work!



Success!!! No derailments after many tests with different locos at different speeds. Is it going to last? I don't know but that will be resolved later when I start working on my permanent layout. Probably I will trim a bit the tape on both ends ... for now it might not look nice but at least I am in the right direction to solve the problem.

Cheers,

Denis