I'm new to the board, and just received my Accucraft FWWR engine, and can't wait for the cars.

Running it on my backyard track, which is rough, showed a few minor problems, easily fixed.

The front pilot truck derailed several times, especaily on curves. Upon close examination I noted that the lateral movement at the top and front of the wheel (especially the flange tip) sometimes hit the frame. As my outdoor track is somewhat rough, this bumping action when it occured on curves sometimes pushed the wheel off the track.

Although the factory has this area cut out, I carefully took my Mototool and ground the curved opening a bit higher and more towards the front. To keep from damaging stuff, I removed the screw and spring holding the front truck in place, then covered the loco with a rag to prevent metal flakes from getting on gears and bearings. After a few swipes with a large grinding wheel the space opened up to avoid any interferance with lateral wheel movement. There are two verical members on both sides that need this trimming. One is the main frame holding the front pltaform, the other is a thin outer face. After grinding and check fitting, I took some black paint and touched up the surface and it looks fine.

A test run at various speeds produced no more derailments.

Antoher thing I modified was to add a bit of weight to the front of the boiler. As received, the loco seems a bit rear heavy,and easily tips backwards a bit if you push on the back. The locomotive weight seems to be centered in back of the rear axle. I added some weights to the inside of boilder just behind the smokebox cover.

To access this area, you need to remove the smokebox cover. This is held on by a small hex screw directly below and partially blocked, by the headlight. So, you need to remove the headlight. I used the smaller of the two hex wrenches that came with the locomotive to remove the 4 screws holding the headlight bracket. Then you can easily remove the top screw holding the smokebox cover, pull out the cover (and carefully pull out the headlight bulb). This gives access to the front of the boiler and smokebox. Take care not to push anything back onto the motor shaft and belt.

Bolt everything back together and your engine will operate better.

If I could post some photos I would.

Seems very clear to me, without photos. Thanks, for sharing your fixes.

Welcome aboard, that mod sounds a little more dramatic than my solution but I was trying to avoid the grinder. I like the idea of adding some weight, I only have two cars so I don't need it for pulling power, but for balance.

If you down load your photos to a photo service (photobucket) you can then list them as image file that can be pulled up in this page. It's really easier than working on your Fort Wilderness Loco.