light cars derailing

[HopperSJ]

well, my birthday was the other day and my wife got my hints and bought me the Cascade Range logging set!!! Yeah! i love the dockside switcher. runs great at slow speeds and the detail is incredible for a starter set....

Anyway, I notice that when I have a light (plastic) log-dump car attatched to the front of the switcher it will often derail while backing around corners. The switcher has a sprung coupler which is not attatched to a truck (b/c it is 0-6-0). I think the spring is tight enough that it will force the light car to derail rather than flex for the corner. The back one works fine and the front works with my stock car, but it derails the log cars. Is there an effective way of weighting down some of the lighter rolling stock to give them a little more "substance"? Is this something anyone has ever done? Or am I missing the boat on this one?

[Dave Farquhar]

There are any number of tricks you can use to try to weigh down a light car. If it's all plastic, probably your cheapest and easiest bet would be to wrap some solder around the axles on the trucks.

Whenever there's any steel at all on a car that can take a magnet, I'll use magnets to add a little weight.

[dougdagrump]

You can also pickup some of the stick-on(self adhesive) wheel weights at the local auto parts store.

[More to restore]

HopperSJ,
I had a very similar problem with the Hi-Cube BN boxcar of Lionel. It is a complete plastic cars and went down in curves, derailed easily on switches. I changed the plastic wheels for metal wheels and now it runs much and much better. So sometimes you need just a little bit more weight to get the car driving nicely again.
I do not know your log car, but if there is some empty void where you could stow away some lead or solder tin, that could help you.
Good luck

[Anonymous]

There are also weights available at fishing tackle displays made of soft lead that can be bent.

[HopperSJ]

Thanks [:)]