Today I carefully twisted the front of the ladders open to give the truck more room in curves. First photo is looking top down showing the twist I made to the ladders on both the powered and unpowered units. Second and third photos show the engine on the same curved section as the original post photos. The twist give me just enough room to maneuver around the previously troublesome curved sections. I attribute the interference not to a Lionel design flaw, but rather, to my 65-year old Gilbert track that likely has irregularities on some curved sections that make the real radius something less than 20 inches in spots. At these spots, the wheel trucks can't make the tighter curves and the wheels ride up on the rails ... and ... the engine derails.
So, a little twist of the ladders gave me enough gap to get through the Gilbert curved track irregularities. The twist isn't visibly noticeable from the side ... engine still looks quite good.
Other than that minor quirk, the Alco PA AA set looks, runs, and sounds good on my 65-year old Gilbert track and switches. Happy to have it.
Appreciate the OGR S gauger feedback from my original inquiry.
Regards,
Tom
