Weaver Rolling Stock

They are scale size with detail somewhere between MTH Railking and Premier. Some detail is add on some is cast on. They are a good value at 20-30 bucks.

Pete

I agree with Pete. At first they had plastic trucks which makes them on the light side weight wise. Then Weaver changed over to die cast trucks. At train shows and EBAY you can find some good deals. Also beware they are made of styrene and the detail parts are somewhat fragile. Lionel is now marketing Weaver under their Lionscale line. A bit more price wise then Weaver's prices. I am always looking for certain Weaver cars. ...Paul

I love the weaver 2 and 3 bay hopper cars, I have over 100 of them. I always ziptie the couplers shut and cut off the thumbtacks.

90% of my cars are Weaver.  When I was building my latest layout I decided to change everything to scale couplers.  There appeared to be uncompatability between manufacturers large knuckle couplers.  The scale couplers have worked out great.  I used the weaver "Bolster and Coupler System".  It fit right on the Weaver truck.  I am not sure if they are still available or if someone else is making them or would make them.  This sure eliminated tieing the cars together and with a couple of Kadee magnets in the tracks it is so easy to do yard work.

The Weaver cars are scale sized and good for making long trains, especially unit trains. MTH has brought back Weaver die cast trucks and couplers ( a bit pricey but that's MFG in the new century) so you can buy older Weaver cars that do not have those die cast trucks and couplers and upgrade the for better performance.

If you make the plastic trucks rigid, they're not as bad.  I use a soldering iron and epoxy.  I had issues with the trucks derailing on gargraves switches due to too much flexing.

I have a lot of Weaver cars and find them to be great!  Although I've purchased some brand new, I've bought most on the used market, at great prices,  at train shows and some off E bay.  They are a great alternative to the more expensive Atlas O , MTH Premier, and Lionel Scale cars .... albeit those 3 brands produce a better quality car in terms of durability, detail, and weight.  Weaver boxcars can be a bit lite, but installing car weights take care of that problem.  Also, I switch out plastic trucks, on the older Weaver cars, and install metal trucks.  

The Weaver cars are a bit fragile as add on parts tend to break off easy.  If handled with adequate care the cars should last for many years.  

I run my Weaver cars with Kadee couplers with no problems . Also put plastic wheels on them run very good.

Excellent points made thus far in this thread. I will add that Weaver offered undecorated cars over the years and some of these show up at swap meets and on auction sites. The quality of painting and decal application varies widely on these home-decorated cars.... so check carefully!  In general, however, the Weaver built & painted cars with die cast trucks and couplers have been good runners for me. 

I loved my Weaver freight cars. 

Weaver freight cars make up 75% of my freight car fleet all with plastic trucks and plastic wheels (Delrin). or engineering plastic is what I use to call it years ago.

SPSF posted:

If you make the plastic trucks rigid, they're not as bad.  I use a soldering iron and epoxy.  I had issues with the trucks derailing on gargraves switches due to too much flexing.

I also did that to my plastic truck fleet, except I used Gorilla Glue. I still want to replace the trucks with metal ones.

I have many Weaver cars.   2, 3, and 4 bay coal hoppers,  3 and 4 bay cylindrical covered hoppers,  40' PS-1 boxcars,  and the flatcars with the 35' trailers.   The flatcars with trailers all have the Weaver factory diecast roller bearing trucks with the thumbtacks.   They track well with the only problem is that a couple of the thumbtacks hung a little low and occasionally contacted the center rail on less than perfect trackwork on our club modules.   On the coal hoppers,  cylindrical hoppers and boxcars,  I have cars with both the delrin trucks/metal wheels and die cast trucks/metal wheels,  all with the thumbtacks.   All three of these Weaver freight car styles are way too light as delivered.   There are different methods to add weight,  but I purchase stick on automobile wheel weights in both 1/4 oz and 1/2 oz cut apart strips from Harbor Freight.   On the boxcars,  I remove the shell and stick the weights on the floor right over the trucks.   Covered hoppers I remove the shell and stick the weights in the bottom of the bays and the flats near the floor ends.   On the coal hoppers I stick the weights in the bottom of the bays(I have coal loads so the weights are covered).    IF you want to run long trains,  the cars should be weighted otherwise the cars will want to straight line string on the curves(the sharper the curves the more chance this will happen).    As Chris also mentioned above,  all the couplers are zip tied shut using the small black electronic zip ties(believe me,  when the train is passing by,  nobody sees them).   Any,  using these tricks works for me and the cars track and operate fine whether plastic or die cast trucks.   The nice thing about Weaver is that they produced many custom/local road names that were not available anywhere else and still aren't even today.

Nick

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

SPSF posted:

If you make the plastic trucks rigid, they're not as bad.  I use a soldering iron and epoxy.  I had issues with the trucks derailing on gargraves switches due to too much flexing.

I also did that to my plastic truck fleet, except I used Gorilla Glue. I still want to replace the trucks with metal ones.

Well, I never heard of such a thing. One of the best things about Weaver's plastic trucks was their flexibility, which nicely emulated real truck springing, far better than most stiff "sprung" trucks. Making the Weavers stiff-legged seems counter-intuitive.

As to the light weight of Weaver cars with plastic trucks, that's why they invented lead and such.

Weaver plastic trucks were just fine; Weaver plastic couplers...now that was a disaster. I treat them as dummies. The Weaver metal couplers could be better (the "thumbtack" is too low), but they were better than the plastic couplers.

Weaver finally got it somewhat correct by the end. The last series (LD) cars were probably the best of Weavers production other than the undersize graphics.

Prior to that, too many changes with weights, thin floors and odd ball + or - screws thru the years.  Shells by todays standards still look ok but are now a bit obsolete. Lacking details now seen on newer competitors stuff.

New designs/ improvement's have been incorporated into MTH & Lionel O surpassing even Atlas.

I own quite a few Weaver cars and love them all. All contain die-cast trucks and couplers except for a couple of cabooses and two 57' reefers. Good O cars for their day I guess.

Thank you!