I was at the local HS and a guy mentioned that the HW passenger cars are not up to NMRA standards for weight. If this is true, how much weight do ya have to add???
Thanks
They are a little light FEELING, though I think they're right on the money. The ones I have are just shy of 7 ounces (6.95 if you want to be exact). At just shy of 1' long, that works out correct by my math -- 1oz + (0.5 oz/in x 12") = 7.
Might be a factor of the batch though... and I bet if I put on the extra grabs I could get that extra 0.05 oz without too much trouble..
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
I think that they feel real heavy, especially if you install lights into them. They roll great and work really well as soon as you replace the couplers and check that the trucks are not on to tight. They are very reliable and looks great. Highly recommended.
Magnus
Maybe Ive a touch of a Piano Moving man, but those HW's as they are seem tad light to me.
Eventually I will have a chance to run a full train and then we will see how we do.
I could be wrong about this. But I have a distinct feeling that the weight actually differs between different cars. Perhaps I should look that up......
perhaps you're right Lillen. I have 9 cars total (pair each of coaches, diners, parlors, and sleepers, and a lounge/observation car). I only ended up weighing 5 of them, as they were all about 6.9 ounces (i think the lightest was like 6.80), and I figure that I can get the extra weight into them with Kadee couplers and the additional grabs, might even be a hair over at that point...
We'll have to see what happens if I ever get around to doing that (those itty-bitty grabs creep me out).
I just finished putting together a 1950 ROYAL GORGE, which is a mixture of heavyweight and streamline, using Walther's cars, and I found that the heavyweights seem to be exactly THAT in relationship to the streamliners. After I tuned up the wheels, made sure that the trucks were swiveling well (some of the cars come tight right out of the box) and replaced those Gawd-awful plastic couplers with Kadee's, the train runs pretty darned well. I'm using a Key 1800 series brass Rio Grande 4-8-4 for power (according to photos I've got of the train) and though the cars are pretty generously weighted, the loco doesn't seem to have a problem hauling about 8 of them around the layout (though I sometimes double-head if I add more cars). They're good cars, well-weighted--at least for me--but they DO need tuning right out of the box. And it's a good thing to check the wheelsets with an NMRA gauge--if they're out of whack, they're easy to re-gauge. But don't expect them to run flawlessly the minute you take them out of the box--in a lot of cases, it just ain't gonna happen.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
I use #5´s. I got around 50 of these babes and they do need tuning. As someone already said. They do need tuning. Each truck needs to be just right for that specific car. Looser is better then tighter but each needs it own personal diagnosis. So far(I haven't fixed the last ones yet) only one pair of wheels have been out of gauge. But the trucks is the thing to focus on.
Once they are fixed and tuned they run superb.
Yesterday I pulled 10 of them around for hours without derailments. But first I took probably two hours of detective work to make them run(the trucks).
The only trouble I ever found with any of the heavyweights is that the trucks can be twisted/ wracked upon assemby. If you experience one or more cars derailing, check for a twisted truck. Of 10 heavyweights, I found one to be extremely bad (derailing) and 3 additional trucks to be slightly skewed. To check, invert the car and sight the axle plane. They all should be parralell. The problem exists where the metal sideframes are screwed the the plastic bolster plate. On some the screws were installed cocked, others hade the bolster twisted. These screws are also the electrical PU for the lighting. One particular truck wouldn't sit square to the body due to the flat PU plate being deformed. Some pressure to flaten solved the trouble.
Now every Walther's car automatically gets Kadees, inspect the trucks and light oil on the axles before going into service. Haven't had an issue with any since.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Loco wrote:Thanks all. Tom, if you wouldn't mind, what is the part number on the Kadee's you used for the HW cars. I'm just a bit overwhelmed with the ton of options there are. I just want them to work... lol
Loco--I use Kadee #5's--they just drop right in with no fuss and no bother. And the shanks are a little thicker than whatever Walthers uses, so they don't droop. They seem to match the Kadee height gauge just perfectly. And you don't have to worry about your train splitting in half if you have too abrupt a grade change, either. I have one spot on my MR where the grade changes from a 2% to an abrupt (but short) section of 2.4% and I haven't lost a car, yet.
Oh, and Bog40 brings up a good issue about the screws holding the trucks together. Besides his input, you might want to check and see if the screw-heads have any burrs on the Philips-heads. If so, file them down a little, just enough to get rid of the burr. That proved to be a cause of frequent derailment on one of my cars. So check the screws on the trucks, also.
I really like these cars, but sometimes they have some issues--admittedly curable--that makes me think that the company really needs better quality control.