Keeping boxcar doors shut

Scotch tape on the inside.

A dab of rubber cement on the inside, out of sight.

I used tape or small dot of hot glue, (inside the boxcar) If you ever want to open the doors again just take the hot glue off.

Mark

Ask the little man inside to keep the door closed. It's for his own good.

Take an old foam rubber pillow, and cut it into cubes. The cube should be the height of the car's interior, by the width of the door, by a little thicker than the car interior.

Place it inside the car, and squish the foam rubber as you close the doors. No chemicals, and easily removable.

A drop of white glue in the track, easily picked out.

I just tape them from the inside.  It's really rare that I'd ever want to open the doors anyway for most cars.

Thanks everyone. I’m truly embarrassed that neither tape nor glue occurred to me spontaneously, and I had to read it to have the light bulb turn on. So much for my innate creativity.🤦🏼🤦🏼🤦🏼🤦🏼

Funny thing Mark - the doors on my boxcars stay closed when running a newer can motor equipped locomotive, but when I pull them with one of my old Pullmor equipped postwar or MPC locomotives, those doors rattle open in minutes!

I would guess Pullmors send more vibration through the track and couplers.

Unless I’m missing something here, taping requires shell removal, or is there a workaround for that, too, that I’m failing to conjure?

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I just tape them from the inside.  It's really rare that I'd ever want to open the doors anyway for most cars.

One wonders why. Real boxcar door are often seen open. They are sometimes left open to ventilate the car. Sometimes you can even see the contents in a terminal situation. I leave some of mine open because it looks right, and you can see through to the car next to it in the yard. 3D stuff. Now, the ones that you don't want open but insist on creeping open, any of the above methods would work (I like the foam cubes).

I do believe that open boxcar doors were more common decades ago, but they still are found.

The foam cubes sound like a decent idea, I never thought of that.

Maybe you just need to hire better bulls to keep the Hobos from hitchen a ride and propping them open.

I have this problem on with my Weaver 20" baggage cars.  I am guessing I would have to take off the end caps and reach in to tape them from the ends?

"The foam cubes sound like a decent idea, I never thought of that."

Thank you, Professor.

I use tape but l have superglue them aslowhen l was to lazy to take the car apart.

Mark - I'm sure your theory of Pullmor motors creating more vibration is true - but it's a beautiful thing!

Some of the adhesives mentioned here make me cringe. I would suggest "Museum Wax" available at most craft and hobby shops. My wife picked up some at Hobby Lobby for me recently. It is soft, resilient, and completely safe for painted surfaces.

I use it for attaching pewter figures to my layout and it allows for clean removal or repositioning of the figures ant any time.