Frustrations!

One of those small frustrations with model railways is when you get an item of rolling stock that continually derails. You know it is not the track because no other rollingstock derails at the same places so it has to be the loco, coach or wagon that is the culprit. 

Derailing is usually down to the wheels but it can also be down to the bogies or wagon running gear on occasions. In this particular case with an old Lima Express Services coach, and from observation I was fairly certain that the issue was with the wheels on one bogie. 

Strangely this second hand coach has a Kadee coupling on the bogie in question so always is at the rear of the rake of coaches. I don't think the coupling had anything to do with the derailing though.

Anyway, I checked the back to back measurement between the inside surfaces of the wheels with the brass coloured strange looking tool in the above photo and all was as it should be.

The wheelsets themselves are unusually made of brass which is something that Lima preferred. Looking at them there was some dirt that could affect running.

Whilst I would have preferred to put new wheels into the bogie, unfortunately the WMD stores had no suitable replacements available - most strange!

That was cleared off and a file run around the wheel tread and rim as there appeared to be some 'dents' in both surfaces.

Whilst the wheelsets were out of the bogie I also used this other odd looking tool just to clean out the axle housings of any burrs of plastic or dirt.

With that done the wheelsets were put back in place.

Putting it back on the track at the back of the rake it looked the part and there was a significant improvement in running

However, the derailing is not fully cured! Instead of once or twice on every circuit of the track it now only derails about every tenth circuit! Much better but still frustrating! I think I need to get some new wheels for it!