Upgrading Old Rolling Stock

[jward]

I probably should have been more explicit in my earlier post. I insert pennies (as a retired psychologist I am not rich enough for nickels) into the tanks of tank car kits. I try to arrange these over the trucks (with an equal number over each truck until the car weight comes up to, or near, NMRA standards for that length of car). As far as I know (and according to my experience) RTR tank cars do not come apart (referring to the tank components themselves); or would be seriously damaged if one tried.

Ray

PS: After reading though the posts on this topic, and others, you all are aware that Mr. Bach Man provides a spell checker? Just a thought.

i am not sure what you guys are doing, but i've never had a tank car in HO or N scales that the body didn't come apart. some need more patience than others. what i have found regarding weights is that pennies stacked on edge will fit inside the tank body. glue them together in a stack then place in the tank and glue to the bottom part. i believe 5 equal one ounce.

[Desertdweller]

jonathon,

I like what you did with your old Pennsy box car.  There was nothing wrong with it that a little work could not cure.  It is, and always was, a nice-looking car.

I would have some equipment that would be of that time period, but I changed over to N-scale in 1978.  For me, it was a good move.  I could not build HO railroads that could support the type of operation I am interested in with the limited space I had available at the time.

Where I live, lead is not banned.  In the narrow confines of N-scale cars, I have found there is not enough contact surface to make practical use of tape-type weights.  I wind up gluing on flat weights.

What works better for me is to use fishing sinkers.  I like to use the lead egg-type sinkers.  These can be easily flattened in a vise to provide a flat gluing surface.  They are available in 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and 1-oz. weights.  I find the 1/4 and 1/2 oz. sizes most useful for N-scale.

Les

[jbrock27]

Les, I do the same thing, flatten bullet or worm weights to give them a good gluing surface.
At first I tried flattening them in the vice, but found this too cumbersome, so instead I use the little anvil that is part of my Craftsman vice and take a hammer and pound the weight flat.  Bc the lead is soft, I don't have to hit it too many times or with too much force.  I have gotten good enough that they look pretty symmetrical when I am done.

[Joe323]

I was perplexed on how to add weight to one of those Jackson open cars that run on my pike finally I pryed the roof off and glued several of my wifes old (before we were married) refrigerator magnet cards cut up until the car came close to NMRA standards.  Now with the roof glued back down you can't see them and the and the car runs better than ever.  Just thought I'd throw in this idea.

[Woody Elmore]

I knew of a guy who poured plaster of paris and bbs into a tank car through the dome. Car weighed a ton!

Sometimes you can turn over the underframe and look for voids. I once used very thin solder glued into the center sill of a flat car.

By the way the pennies you guys are using cost the government two cents to make.

[NuthinDragginOwt]

   I use two types of weighting on my cars. A simple one is to go to a local gun shop or outdoor store, and buy a bag of fine buck or lead shot, which if you're not familiar, are basically small lead beads, find the smallest size available. This is good for cars with only small spaces for weight or hopper pockets. I put the shot into the open spaces and put few drop of a thick glue/water mix on them, and let them dry. In hopper cars, if the car is not quite up to the NMRA weights at this point, I pour some into the hopper pockets and glue them in. I then weather the instide of the car, and cover over the lead shot with fine coal or ballast and glue it on top. A hint when doing this, real hopper cars have a tendency of having a few tons of coal left over in the car if the material does no readily dump out. Through transit, the leftover material will vibrate down into the pockets, which looks just like the coal that covers the weights in my cars. *Warning*: You are dealing with lead here, use the necessary precautions.
   Another way in which I weight cars is by gluing stainless steel nuts into the inside of cars that are enclosed (Boxcars, Covered Hoppers). I attach them either by 5 minute epoxy (recommended) or super glue. This is not a requirement, just an interesting little note, I use nuts because I get them for free, so I can't beat the price, and of the type I use, they are AAR (Association of American Railroads) signalling electronic nuts, which I get a basically unlimited supply of, as old signal relays and other parts are trashed. I found these to be exactly 1/4 ounce each, so they easy to figure out how many you need per car.

[jbrock27]

Thanks for the idea Joe323.

I have done something similar Woody using Common finishing nails; like 4s.  For a hopper car, I have glued 4 nails underneath in the center beam.  I cut the head of the nail off if it interferes with my laying them flat and on top of one another in the center beam.  Once I dry fit to see how many I can fit, I take them out, put a little 2 part Epoxy in the center beam, lay 1 layer of nails, then add some more Epoxy and another layer of nails.  I do this until I can't lay any more nails down.  I have not measured on my scale how much weight it adds, but you can feel it and the car runs better.

[gjsrky]

As far as wheel weights go... They make stick-on wheel weights for auto's that is segmented at either 1/4 or 1/2 oz. and has a peel off tape already in place... See any auto parts store.