Car weighing

We went through this exercise with Weaver cars at the club, did about 50 cars.  They did track MUCH better after the project.  Weaver 10" boxcars weigh only 7-8oz before weights, that's half of the NMRA suggested weight.  The problem was if you had a consist of any length, the Weaver cars would often derail before the weight was added.  If the cars are only slightly underweight, I suspect the benefit would be much less.

FWIW, rolling resistance is as important, and maybe more important, than the weight.

Same experience as John.....I add weight to most cars. I buy fishing weights in bulk and a tube of silicone. 

MIKE, I weight my cars with Harbor Freight wheel weights. They have a very strong adhesive backing and work really well. They come in 1/4 oz. and 1/2 oz.. When using the 1/2 oz., they do have a very slight dished shape to them so that they apply well to a car's wheel, so you may want to flatten them before you apply them. I just set them on a hard surface and smack them a few time on the backside with a hammer before removing the adhesive cover.

https://www.harborfreight.com/...l-weights-67226.html

You say “They run well”, so why would you want to add weight? If they already run well, extra weight just adds to the load on the locomotive, causing the motor to draw more current resulting in added heat.

Bill in FtL

Bill Nielsen posted:

You say “They run well”, so why would you want to add weight? If they already run well, extra weight just adds to the load on the locomotive, causing the motor to draw more current resulting in added heat.

Bill in FtL

Mike,

To me Bill's comment is good for shorter trains.  If you are not having problems, run them as is.

If you are having issues with tracking on longer trains, as others have mentioned adding weight will help but check for other potential problems first.  If you do add weight, you do not need to add weight to get to the NMRA standards.  Add just enough to get good tracking.

  A nicely weighted car is less likely to derail. Especially resistant to stringlining in curves too. Proper weight can be essential on keeping a scale model on the rails. The NMRA publishes guidelines to help.

   I've weighted cheap cabooses since I was a kid to keep the rear trucm from jumping off rails in switches, etc.  And gondolas can be light load um up!

The all time worst offender is the plastic post war flat car with no load ! You'd be lucky to pull 4 medium weight cars behind one on 0-27.

I'm with Ron I have  over 200 Weaver cars with plastic trucks and wheels. I don't go has high as NMRA standards, about 3 to 4 ounces works for me. But then I have large curves.  

A pack of fender washers from the auto parts store and some hot glue also works, especially inside of a boxcar/refrigerator car.

Bill Nielsen posted:

You say “They run well”, so why would you want to add weight? If they already run well, extra weight just adds to the load on the locomotive, causing the motor to draw more current resulting in added heat.

Bill in FtL

Well that depends on how long your train length is as well as what car type are you weighting down. I have weighted many cars on my RR to the NMRA weight specks. I also have cars that are overweight such as the K-Line, Lionel die cast hoppers. I even have intentionally overweight cars such as the MTH autoracks by 30 oz so the don't overturn as easy and track better.

Bottom line there are more benefits with weighting the car down to NMRA standards than if you don't, especially on long trains.

I never put any rolling stock on the layout without first weighing it and bringing it to NMRA standard.  It is especially important if you want to do switching.  I could back a 30 car freight through curves into sidings with no problem.  Trick is to have the cars properly weighted, and go slow.

Dennis

Bringing your rolling stock up to NMRA standard weight is the single best thing you can do to improve the tracking ability of the cars. It is easy to do and makes a huge difference in the way the cars run.