Adding weight to rolling stock

I place the weights over the trucks.   Some cars need more weight than others.  Weaver cars in particular track much better with added weight.

The guideline is 5oz and one oz per inch.  So, your 10" car should weigh 15oz.  Obviously, that's just a guideline, but if you get all of the cars somewhere near the NMRA weight standard, you'll normally have better results.  One issue is when the car weighs too much, not much you can usually do about that.

For locomotives, I like to add as much weight as possible. Unless you get ridiculous, adding weight to a locomotive almost always translates to better traction and stable running.

Here I took a shot at adding weight to this HHP-8.

A nice, easy way to add about two pounds to the Hippo. Is that the one that came with the starter set or the separate sale version?

For house cars and tank cars where you can get inside the tank, I fill a baggie with old nuts, bolts, screws, etc. while it's on the scale with the car. I mean, who uses wood screws any more? Same for hopper cars with a fake load on top. For flat cars, I glued flat steel bar under the car deck; also used flat steel inside a plastic tender body. For one gondola in my work train, the steel went inside the body with a load of ties on top. Never had a passenger car underweight yet. For unloaded open hoppers, I used cars that already met the NMRA standard empty. This included die-cast cars, but also several plastic ones. I've also used loads to weight hoppers--my limestone loads are cat litter, suitably lower in the car since the stone was more dense than coal. I have not worried about specific placement of any added weight, as long as it's between the trucks.

Tank cars are tough. No floor or flat bottom. Also tough to get inside sometimes.

Decades ago, I bought Kalmbach's 764 kinks for model railroaders, or something like that. One was to wrap solder around the axles of the car. I haven't needed to do it yet, but it's a threat...

I follow the same NMRA formula.  Since I also race and build RC model sailboats which use poured epoxy and lead shot for the keels, I have used #9 shot bound with 50/50 white glue and water in hoppers, painted flat black, then covered with whatever "load" I am simulating- like coal, or ballast.

I use sticky-back wheel balancing weights bought at the automotive parts store for box cars, and flat cars.

I have been concerned about the weight of cars when running a diesel loco with a marginal motor- like a LC Plus.  And far better are ones with dual motors.  So I run my Legacy F Units with a powered A, and a powered B , then an unpowered A lash up.  I run from 15-25 cars.

I never thought about weighting locos though.

@gunrunnerjohn people used to be concerned about excess loco weight exceeding motor current capacity. Do you measure motor amps when adding weight?

One caution - Weaver boxcars have plastic floors that will sag if weight is placed in the middle. Over the trucks would be the preferable location.

@Ken Wing posted:

@gunrunnerjohn people used to be concerned about excess loco weight exceeding motor current capacity. Do you measure motor amps when adding weight?

Nope, seat of the pants.  For the HHP-8, it only weighed 4 pounds, with two Mabuchi RS-385 motors, there's no risk of exceeding the motor capacity.  Adding the weight made a huge difference in pulling power, I was amazed what a little over an extra pound did for it.

Honestly, I've seen factory installations of one Mabuchi RS-385 motor in steamers that weighed 7-8 pounds and were hauling around a diecast tender, so IMO it would be hard to overload a diesel/electric with two motors with an extra pound or two of weight.

@Ken Wing posted:

Decades ago, I bought Kalmbach's 764 kinks for model railroaders, or something like that. One was to wrap solder around the axles of the car. I haven't needed to do it yet, but it's a threat...

That does work, I have acquired a few cars over the years that had been done to. Now I know where the idea came from.

This topic came up a while back. For my medium sized layout with limited freight operations, I use 1 oz. wheel weights from Amazon placed on each end of the car. Be careful not to put it right over the  screw holding the trucks in place. An extra ounce on each end is all my light weight boxcars need to back into a siding with no derailments. For cars that need more weight, just put 2 on each end. With the adhesive backing, it's easy peasy.

Hot glue and some of the 40 pounds of 200gr 45ACP bullets I have do the job for me, and it's almost free.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hot glue and some of the 40 pounds of 200gr 45ACP bullets I have do the job for me, and it's almost free.

Well, that’s because you’re a gunrunner.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hot glue and some of the 40 pounds of 200gr 45ACP bullets I have do the job for me, and it's almost free.

….confirms your nom de plume!

Get rolls of pennies. Cut the roll the width of your boxcars and wedge the roll inside your boxcars. When your done you can cash them back in at the bank and your have no cost in the weights.

I use the wheel weights too. Quick and easy. Harbor Freight is a good cheap source too.

I used the stick-on weights until I realized I had a bunch of free ones that I'd never use for anything else.  Didn't like the way they shot, but they work much better as rolling stock weights.

The NMRA recommendation is total car weight, not just added weight.

My experience is that good rolling wheels with smooth treads is equally as important as weight,   Some very light weights are exceptions to this.    But I have found if the cars roll easily and the wheels adjust to curves by sliding slightly as the prototype does, a wide variety of weights can be mixed.    I have a bunch of Weaver covered hoppers which are fairly light, and I can generally mix them in a train of Atlas boxcars which are fairly heavy, and they run well with not derailments or string lining.    I do  use body mount couplers which probably helps tracking too.

I primarily run small diesels and small locomotives.  And, most of my boxcars are about 10 inches.

So, even though the official standards indicate that these cars should weigh 15 ounces (let's round that up to a pound), I can't image my small engines being able to haul 7 or 8 cars (7 to 8 pounds) of weight, plus caboose, for very long without burning them out.  My scale 44-tonner from Williams has two good motors, so maybe it could handle the weight, but I doubt the others (such as my Lionel Dockside switcher) would last long.

I just heavily weight the first car behind the engine, so that the stiff coupler on the back of the engines doesn't derail the first car, and leave the rest of the cars as-is.   I really don't have much problem backing them up, as long as a go slowly.

Mannyrock

If you're pulling 7-8 cars, weighting them probably isn't nearly as critical as pulling longer trains.  You won't get away with the caviler weighting with 40-50 cars.  This consist sorted out several issues with some of the tank cars and I had a few fixes to get them all rolling well.

Its not the absolute weight of the cars but the "rolling resistance". That depends on the trucks, wheel and track as well a car weight being a factor. The engine in pulling the load not lifting it.

@Scotie posted:

Its not the absolute weight of the cars but the "rolling resistance". That depends on the trucks, wheel and track as well a car weight being a factor. The engine in pulling the load not lifting it.

That dynamic changes with inclines; to some extent, the car is being lifted as well as being pulled.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hot glue and some of the 40 pounds of 200gr 45ACP bullets I have do the job for me, and it's almost free.

. . . or, better yet, just slice off and glue in a slab of C4 -- makes for more drama when something eventually derails!

@RSJB18 posted:

I use the wheel weights too. Quick and easy. Harbor Freight is a good cheap source too.

Just remember they made of lead and your hands should be properly cleaned afterwards

@ThatGuy posted:

Just remember they made of lead and your hands should be properly cleaned afterwards

Oh Great! Add that to the list of things that are going to kill me.....

Yes- hands get washed and I'm not eating while adding weight.

@RSJB18 posted:

Oh Great! Add that to the list of things that are going to kill me.....

Yes- hands get washed and I'm not eating while adding weight.

You know the world is coming to an end when I become the voice of reason……..lmao

have a great new year

Putting weight on locomotives is often worth time, effort and weights as it often will increase pulling power.  Weighting down cars is not done around here unless there is a reason.  A time or two a light weight car seamed to get pulled off the 027 tracks on a curve, with too many or heavier cars behind the light car.  It that case, I moved the light car to the rear of the train.

If it is not broken, don't fix it.

Charlie

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Putting weight on locomotives is often worth time, effort and weights as it often will increase pulling power.  Weighting down cars is not done around here unless there is a reason.  A time or two a light weight car seamed to get pulled off the 027 tracks on a curve ,with too many or heavier cars behind the light car.  It that case, I moved the light car to the rear of the train.

If it is not broken, don't fix it.

Charlie

True, Charlie. Weighting down cars could put a drag on the engine with more weight to pull. However, when my grandkids are switching cars, sometimes a heavier car, like an operating milk car, can derail the lighter weight car in front of it as it's being pushed back in front of its platform on a siding. We don't keep track of the proper order in a consist, of heavier cars being at the head end and lighter cars at the tail end.

In the photo below, the rear truck of the Union Pacific double door would sometimes derail when doing this. So, by adding a 1 oz. weight over each truck on the UP double door and on the Santa Fe regular box car, it solved the problem with only 4 additional ounces for the engine to pull, which is negligible.

For weight, I listened to several experts on this forum back in the 1990's to buy 7mm buck shot. One 25lb bag purchased at a good sporting goods store will last a lifetime and using wathers goo and crazy glue mix keeps the shot where I want it to be.

Note for MTH Premier auto carriers. I had to overweigh them to 30 oz total by placing  the buck shot in the plastic center sill on the frame. The o.e.m. cars are top heavy but by adding the extra weight very low by the trucks, the cars perform flawlessly.

Weaver had a weight system that attached to the underside of there coal hoppers.

@ThatGuy posted:

Just remember they made of lead and your hands should be properly cleaned afterwards

They may be made of lead, but steel and zinc are also used a lot nowadays for wheel weights.  Probably should still wash your hands.

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

For weight, I listened to several experts on this forum back in the 1990's to buy 7mm buck shot. One 25lb bag purchased at a good sporting goods store will last a lifetime and using wathers goo and crazy glue mix keeps the shot where I want it to be.

Note for MTH Premier auto carriers. I had to overweigh them to 30 oz total by placing  the buck shot in the plastic center sill on the frame. The o.e.m. cars are top heavy but by adding the extra weight very low by the trucks, the cars perform flawlessly.

The shot is the best way I've found for adding weight to tank cars.  Many don't have any way to get it inside, so I drill a small hole in the bottom center and feed the shot in there.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The shot is the best way I've found for adding weight to tank cars.  Many don't have any way to get it inside, so I drill a small hole in the bottom center and feed the shot in there.

Makes sense, but just curious: do you leave it loose (I imagine it would settle in the bottom of the curve during use, and not rattle around too much in any event), or do you add a shot of glue after loading the shot and just shake the contents around a bit (think, rattle can! ) to distribute the glue on the shot, before letting it all dry?

I do chase it with a shot of glue.  Truthfully, I've been using carpenter's yellow glue, it has a nice injection nozzle and it seems to do the trick just fine.  I then set them aside for a couple of days and all is well.  Of course, I also seal up the hole I made to inject the glue, usually with some RTV.

I hot glued a Zippo lighter in a Lionel “0-27” slopeback tender . ( No , I don’t use it ). The lighter that is.😂😂😎🚂🚂

Thanks, everyone, for some very helpful tips to get all of my rolling stock in shape. The point about the wheels rolling as freely as possible along with the proper weights will be taken to heart when I get them all ready. I know some of the wheels don't roll as smoothly as is optimal. I guess I'll just have to see how everything tracks when I'm ready.

Tom

@Z-man posted:

Get rolls of pennies. Cut the roll the width of your boxcars and wedge the roll inside your boxcars. When your done you can cash them back in at the bank and your have no cost in the weights.

11 pennies equals 1 ounce.  

Obviously, gondolas and flats are easy. I have real marble blocks and tailings in those cars. The black covered hoppers are also full of rocks. Th gray covered hoppers are full of popcorn. I just poured it in!  The box cars have rocks stuffed through the doors. Most cars run ~ 1 pound.

Tank cars bring up the rear because they are hard to weight, but I see some great ideas here about weighting tank cars that I'm going to try. The grade in the video is around 6%, then flat for about 10 feet and then back down as it goes around the room. I can only pull about 27 cars without the train catching itself but they run fine.

Good luck and Happy New Year!!