Adding weight to Weaver cars

Stick on tire weights

If you have a Harbor Freight store near you, get the 1/2 oz wheel weights, 12 pieces for $9.99.

I have heard that others have stopped at tire stores and got weights for free.

RAY

This is what they look like.

I just use big washers, the largest that will fit. Also check your scrap boxes. Any flat steel can be used like old hinges.

Pete

Probably the cheapest way to add weight would be to use pennies and glue them in place with Walthers Goo.

Stick-on wheel weights for me.  Harbor Freight…or search on-line for buying in bulk.

I used BBs or shotgun shot in my hoppers held in the hopper discharge chutes with glue. Boxcars, anything flat that will fit over the truck kingpin.

If it’s hoppers your weighting and you are running them open. Get some lead shot and glue it in. Then just sprinkle and glue a bit of coal over it. They will be a bit showing but basically it will look empty. Not sure how they look. Scale City Design makes weights for the Weaver cars that conform to the body.

Weaver sold weights for the two bay coal hoppers.   The (2) weights install in the V-shape formed by the two belly hopper chutes.

Another vote for the stick on wheel weights. I get mine on Amazon and they come in both gray and black.

Curt

Stick on wheel weights - local NAPA store. If you live in the Northeast or CA, ask if they have any of the old lead ones (Discontinued - illegal to sell in these and other states - when they come off along highways, rainwater runoff from them harms birds and small animals). Often store managers (when told of their intended use) will sell them cheaply or give them to you as open boxes are not returnable to their distribution center.

@Ray of sunshine posted:

If you have a Harbor Freight store near you, get the 1/2 oz wheel weights, 12 pieces for $9.99.

I have heard that others have stopped at tire stores and got weights for free.

RAY

Checking the auction site that shall not be named, how about 9 lbs (1/4 oz each) of weights for 28 bucks. Sounds like a deal. Maybe cheaper than washers.

Pete

Norton may be on to something, Cheap is good.  I use whatever I have around and will never use... @Hot Water .... Including pennies.

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Any old thing you can find that's heavy.  I have used wheel weights, but I have to pay for those.  I happen to have about 40-45 pounds of these, so I use them.   Since they weren't all that good for their original purpose, and nobody wanted them, I just glue them into cars and engines for extra weight.

Note, when using the stick on weights, that glue doesnt hold too well after a few years. Add some walthers goo to those stick on weights for a longer lasting bond.

This is quite an appropriate subject for me. I recently bought some new Weaver cars, mostly box cars and several hoppers. While they look very nice, they don't go through the Gargraves and Ross switches very well. I do have quite a few All Nation and Reynolds kit cars with Lionel trucks and they perform much better. I wondered if the Weaver units needed more weight? Someone said I should get a postal scale and compare weights and then act accordingly. Since this topic has come up here, I would appreciate any advice on helping solve this problem. Thanks in advance

A while back i picked up pyramid shaped fishing weights at a going out of business sporting goods store.  They worked great in weaver boxcars and covered hoppers. 

@Bill Park posted:

Since this topic has come up here, I would appreciate any advice on helping solve this problem. Thanks in advance

You said it, add weight.  NMRA guidelines are five ounces plus one ounce for each inch in length for O-gauge cars.  For a 10" car, that's 15 ounces.

@Mike CT posted:

Weaver sold weights for the two bay coal hoppers.   The (2) weights install in the V-shape formed by the two belly hopper chutes.

On the left is the weight from the underside of a K-Line flat car.  Usually held in place with two screws/bolts.  On the right is a Weaver weight designed to fit in the two bay hopper.  John

John - any idea if/where the Weaver v shaped weight(s) can be bought?

I think "sold" is the operative word here.  Weaver is long gone...

@rattler21 posted:

On the left is the weight from the underside of a K-Line flat car.  Usually held in place with two screws/bolts.  On the right is a Weaver weight designed to fit in the two bay hopper.  John

Scale city designs sells those weights for Weaver models

https://scalecitydesigns.com/s...ght-details/weights/

I'll ask a beginner question - why add weight? Is it for realism in approximating a load? Or to help the cars stay on the tracks while navigating curves, switches, coupling up, etc?

@mike.caruso posted:

This is what they look like.

And the adhesive is very tenacious.  I've used them in a Weaver hopper that was light as a feather.

@GregK posted:

I'll ask a beginner question - why add weight? Is it for realism in approximating a load? Or to help the cars stay on the tracks while navigating curves, switches, coupling up, etc?

The cars are too light to stay on the track reliably, especially if they're located ahead of heavier cars.

I hang out at local Independent tire shop. He throws away used stick on lead weights. One weaver box car for some reason the plastic floor was bowing down. So I made a whole new floor out of sheet steel. Runs fine.Discarded plastic floor.Couldnt figure out why it bowed down.

Decoy weights in the hunting section of the larger sporting goods stores are usually a good deal.  can cut or break them to fit in boxcars.  Not great for hoppers though.

@SDBOB1 posted:

One weaver box car for some reason the plastic floor was bowing down. So I made a whole new floor out of sheet steel. Runs fine.Discarded plastic floor.Couldnt figure out why it bowed down.

SDBOB1, Weaver made flat, rectangular steel weights for some of their boxcars that were attached with a single bolt and nut.  They were mounted in the center of the car floor...exactly where you DON'T want to put weights!  Over time, the plastic floors/frames on some (but not all) of these cars sagged in the middle...no big surprise.

This is only a guess, but the car you're talking about may have had one of these center weights installed at some point.  Did you buy it new? One of the telltale signs is a hole drilled in the dead center of the car floor where the bolt went through.

The added weight really needs to be positioned over the trucks, especially on any boxcar with an all-plastic floor and sub-frame.  The photo below shows two Weaver boxcar floors with stick-on wheel weights that I added to bring the car up to NMRA standard.  You can also see the hole drilled in the center for the Weaver weight.

And here's a photo of two Weaver boxcar floors with no center hole...

I’d like to add weight to a Weaver covered hopper. Does the roof pull off easily? I’m hesitant to pry it off.

@GregK posted:

I'll ask a beginner question - why add weight? Is it for realism in approximating a load? Or to help the cars stay on the tracks while navigating curves, switches, coupling up, etc?

Weighting each car to the n.m.r.a. recommended weight of 5oz plus 1oz per carbody length ensures better train operation and minimizes stringling on curves.

Artie- DL&W,

I have a number of the Weaver 2 bay hopper cars that I applied the weights, these are the straight side cars, I believe they are 4750 cubic foot cars First remove both trucks from the car body by removing the screws, next the bottom of the car body with the hopper is removed from the upper part of the car body. Using a small flat screwdriver insert this screwdriver in the gap between the car side and the bottom of the car body and gently pull the car body upwards repeat this at all 4 corners, then the bottom is easy to remove. When you do the first corner there may be a small pointed projection by the bottom end diagonal bracing that hold the bottom of the car body to the remaining car body , if you see one there are probably three more at the other corner locations.

The roof, sides and ends with the ladders is one molded piece, there are two removable vertical pieces that are inboard of the ends with the ladders, at the bottom facing inward is a clearance slot for the truck screws. The weight required is 5 ounces plus one ounce of weight per length of the car or 13 ounces if the hopper car is 8 inches long.

One the weights are added and bonded to the car body bottom section, you can reassembly the car in the reverse procedure.