I like weaver boxcars but

Later Weaver cars came with a steel plate for added weight. I use 1/2" nuts glued over each truck. They are indeed too light without added weight.

Pete

Norton posted:

Later Weaver cars came with a steel plate for added weight. I use 1/2" nuts glued over each truck. They are indeed too light without added weight.

Pete

Funny you should say that.Because I just got back from lowes.I brought some nuts which I glued to each end of the car.Four on each end of the car.

I weigh all my freight car's to the. NMRA standards of 5 oz plus 1oz per car length. Never had any problems since. I use 7mm shot glues in the center sill underneath as close to the trucks as possible.

I too like Weaver boxcars but I can't trust people who sell on da bay as they tend to rely on 50 yr old tissue paper for packing and protecting the car. Only Weaver cars made after 2009 with that plastic clamshell inner lining will I purchase a Weaver car. I am surprised that no one else purchased these inner linings for their collection while Weaver models was still in business.

 

A problem I had with my weighted Weaver cars was that some with plastic couplers would break, especially mixed with Atlas O cars. I converted all my Weaver cars over to metal trucks and couplers  and fixed the problem.

PAUL ROMANO posted:

A problem I had with my weighted Weaver cars was that some with plastic couplers would break, especially mixed with Atlas O cars. I converted all my Weaver cars over to metal trucks and couplers  and fixed the problem.

I had not thought of that.I may get me a pair and try them out.

BV trailer atop a Weaver flat car adds enough weight so it tracks well.

Ours are in revenue service and track just fine.  John in Lansing, ILL

rattler21 posted:

Ours are in revenue service and track just fine.  John in Lansing, ILL

Pretty slick looking load you got there.

You guys have to remember Weaver boxcars originally where prepainted and decorated kits.  Thats why they wrapped individual pieces in tissue paper and shoe box type carton. Mostly it was 2 railers that bought these, and they installed a specific truck and wheel set, and their favorite coupler, and they put the weight in. Just like today they tried to keep cost down. Later on they where sold assembled and shipped in a carton with cardboard sleeve, The car had one large piece of plastic shrink wrap holding it snug to the insert, then inserted into the outer box. the same outer box they used until the end. At one time I had over three hundred pieces of Weaver rolling stock. Not one of those was received with any damage. Never broke a coupler or truck unless it fell on the floor  If all your cars are lightweight Weaver it  doesn't take much to pull them or keep on track. When MTH came along and made scale size cars that where weighted correctly then I started adding weight ( stick on weights from Harbor freight ). I still use those early Weaver Delrin plastic trucks and wheels,only thing that rolls better are 2 rail trucks and wheels, some cars still no weight. Weaver made weights for their different cars.

2-3 fender washers hot glued to the boxcar floor centered over each truck worked for me.

Originally posted by Clem K:

You guys have to remember Weaver boxcars originally where prepainted and decorated kits. 
Thats why they wrapped individual pieces in tissue paper and shoe box type carton.
Mostly it was 2 railers that bought these, and they installed a specific truck and wheel set,
and their favorite coupler, and they put the weight in. Just like today they tried to keep cost down.
Later on they where sold assembled and shipped in a carton with cardboard sleeve,
The car had one large piece of plastic shrink wrap holding it snug to the insert,
then inserted into the outer box.
the same outer box they used until the end.
At one time I had over three hundred pieces of Weaver rolling stock. Not one of those was received with any damage.

Well Count yourself Lucky. I had several when buying the 12 packs that the trucks BROKE from the shrinkwrap pressure to secure the car to the inner cardboard lining. It didn't matter to much for me because as stated above, I converted all my Weaver cars to the D/C trucks and couplers.

If you can use metal trucks that would help lower the center of gravity.

I've used 1/4 oz & 1/2 oz stick on wheel weights from Harbor Freight.   They come in strips and I just cut off the amount I need and attach them to the floor inside the boxcar shell directly over the trucks.   No more derailments.

Nick

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

I too like Weaver boxcars but I can't trust people who sell on da bay as they tend to rely on 50 yr old tissue paper for packing and protecting the car. Only Weaver cars made after 2009 with that plastic clamshell inner lining will I purchase a Weaver car. I am surprised that no one else purchased these inner linings for their collection while Weaver models was still in business.

 

Hey 'Curve, I actually did exactly what you said. I hated the Weaver packing that had the one piece of cardboard with the plastic holding the car to the cardboard because there was no way to store the car once you removed it from the original packaging. Then when Weaver came out with the plastic clamshell inner lining you are talking about I was like this is great! I said to myself I wonder if Weaver will sell me the inner linings for all my Weaver cars that had the cardboard packaging. I called Weaver and they said they would. I bought enough linings to do all of the Weaver cars I had at the time and some outer boxes too as some cars did not have boxes at all. Incidentally, I needed some more linings just a few months before Weaver closed and I called them again to buy more but this time I was told the owner only had a few left and he needed them for cars that he had there. I didn't realize at the time that it was a bad sign. It was the only time Weaver ever refused to sell me anything.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

I am surprised that no one else purchased these inner linings for their collection while Weaver models was still in business.

 

Maybe a few of us did.  I for one bought both plastic "clam shells" and boxes to replace earlier packaging not only for better protection of the models, but also to eliminate the time consuming hassle of opening and putting away the trains.  Some of the older packaging was non-reusable shrink-wrap plastic on cardboard.

Later Weaver models had only die-cast metal trucks (vs. also being available with plastic trucks) and they also tended to be more/better weighted.  As an example, I have an early northeast caboose that is very light and a later one that has interior detail, is much heavier, and runs much better.  I switched over to all metal trucks but others have told me there was nothing wrong with the plastic trucks as long as the car was properly weighted.

I really like Weaver rolling stock and it's easy to add weight to the cars that need it.

I have a roll of 3" wide clear tape which only adheres to itself.  No problem using it to secure the car to the original cardboard inner piece.  No need to wrap over the wheels.  John in Lansing, ILL

machinist posted:

I've used 1/4 oz & 1/2 oz stick on wheel weights from Harbor Freight.   They come in strips and I just cut off the amount I need and attach them to the floor inside the boxcar shell directly over the trucks.   No more derailments.

Nick

I do exactly the same, and I run long strings of them on our club layout with no problems.  If I were flush with cash I'd replace all the trucks with die-cast units.

There were weight(s) designed to fit the coal hoppers.

Adjustment of the wheel sets out-ward, was another correction, that seemed to help.  The wheel sets would ride-up on track guides, switches and crosses. 

rattler21 posted:

I have a roll of 3" wide clear tape which only adheres to itself.  No problem using it to secure the car to the original cardboard inner piece.  No need to wrap over the wheels.  John in Lansing, ILL

Thats good to know John, thank you.  I use the plastic that came with the car and duct tape, I think gorilla tape may be to strong.  I cut the plastic on the back side of the cardboard sleeve leaving the original  tape in place, to hold the plastic in place then put the duct tape half way around the plastic with one end of the tape fold over so I can grab it, use the same tape over and over.

Clem

Anyone have any Weaver Die-Cast Trucks for sale in 2-Rail. Either the 70 or 100ton trucks. 

Thanks, Dan   dan@boxxcarco.com 

I like the last few years of products from Weaver. The quality had definitely improved. I'll be honest though, I had stopped considering them for a long time because of the absolute junk that I bought in the 90's and early 2000's. The products were very light and super fragile. I have a bunch of covered hoppers that were held together with tiny brittle plastic pins and loops. Every single one of those cars sits broken in a box. I wanted to like them (pro USA) but the stuff I got was not up to the quality of Atlas, Lionel, or MTH.

The newer tooled hoppers and TOFC cars were very nice from what I could tell though.

If you are looking for weights for Weaver cars we offer them made for ease of installation and hidden from view. here is a link for the weights: http://www.scalecitydesigns.com/WEIGHTS_c_64.html