Salfords Light Railway

The Salfords Light Railway diary

June 2004

Umm, interesting problem. I had some unexpected guests turn up the other day, so out in to the garden, got the stock out only to find that 2 wheels had come loose on the axles on a bogie of my coach (sorry, no photo). This is most bizarre because I had not run for a several weeks and hadn't touched anything, so why all of a sudden should 2 wheels on the same side of one bogie come loose??

I have a couple of thoughts on this:

• The very hot spell we had the week before caused expansion and contraction on the bond between wheel and axle and it spontaneously failed - seems unlikely, it wasn't THAT hot.
• The 10' radius curves on my line are causing one wheel to turn faster than the other (why cars and trucks have differentials) and this put a strain on the bond and the wheel came loose - seems more likely, I can only assume I got lucky with my previous running session.

Anyway, I have tack welded the wheels back where they should be. They were so loose I didn't think that Loctite would hold them for very long. It has been 24 years since I did any welding and frankly it looks like it. Still, it is down under a carriage where (hopefully) no one will go looking in a hurry.

My birthday party is coming round again so I needed to find out these problems beforehand anyway.

[ author: - last updated 24th June 2004 ] [ HOME ]