tstage Anyhow, I'm just curious what some of the rest of you use for affixing weights to boxcars and/or hoppers. Thanks for your answers...
Anyhow, I'm just curious what some of the rest of you use for affixing weights to boxcars and/or hoppers. Thanks for your answers...
I use adhesive caulk and 1/2", 5/16" or 3/8" washers from Menards. The caulk sets up quickly, can be removed pretty easily and cleans up with water. The washers come in a bulk pack of 18 for $1.58 and vary in weight from .15 oz., .20 oz., .25 oz. to .30 oz. (some are even heavier). They fit in boxcars perfectly. For hoppers, I use the commercial stick on weights and always put a coal or gravel load in the car. For empties, you can paint the weights the same color as the car and make them somewhat invisble (to more tolerant eyes). I really don't have many flats, but stick on weights or slices of stick on weights seem to work well.
As to the recommended weights, I used the formula found on the NMRS site and put it into an Excel spreadsheet and calculated the weight for car lengths from 29' cars to 85' (rounded to the nearest .05 oz).
Len S
dknelsonSome were bent and not usable
A hammer, vise, or channel-lock pliers will flatten those bent discs to where they are usable. I'll have to remember to keep those the next time I'm installing metal electrical boxes. Good suggestion!
Taking in consideration RP20, I made a wooden ruler marked in ounces rather than inches to determine the recommend weight of my HO rolling stock
at the 1 inch mark it says "2" at 2 inch mark "2.5" 3 inch mark "3" and so on
Just hold it up to the car & you will immediately know what the recommended weight should be
Another source for "free" weights: at a home construction site I visited the electrician had punched out the circles in the various electrical junction boxes. From this website
http://www.electricalbypass.com/
The ground was littered with these steel discs so I picked them up. Some were bent and not usable but many were perfectly flat and they are helpful when you need just a bit more weight to get something up to NMRA standards. And as posted above, no longer will I use Goo to attach the stuff .
Dave Nelson
I work in a machine shop and have a bunch of scrap tungsten carbide rods (1/8" in diameter and anywhere from 1/4" to 1.5" long - about 3 pounds of em) that I think I'm gonna use for weights. Tungsten carbide is heavier than lead, and not toxic. The downside of course is the near impossibility of cutting/forming it. Obviously not an ideal substance for the purpose unless you happen (like I do) to have it already in small pieces that can be easily glued into freight cars, but I'll be interested to see how it works out in place of lead.
I use silicone bath type caulk. You can buy a tube for really cheap at the big box stores. I affix 1/2" zinc plated hex nuts (also cheap; buy in bulk) and put 'em over the trucks on box cars, covered hoppers etc where they won't be visible. Haven't had a problem in over ten years.
Jimmy
ROUTE ROCK!
I use pennies and white glue. I just spread the pennies evenly on the floor and cover with glue. I have a boxcar that has been that way for over 10 years with no problems. A couple of hoppers I just skipped the glue since the hopper bottoms slope and the pennies stay put under the coal load.
Enjoy
Paul
and clickable
http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/rp-20_1.html
You can find the NMRA RP for car weights here: http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/rp-20_1.html
Joe
Silicone or Latex adhesive caulking.It will make up for any imperfections in the "flatness" of the weight, it dries fast and is cheap good enough for me.
jecorbettcudaken Tom, I use to use penny's and Liquid Nails, most of the penny's held fine but some did come lose. (bet I have $3.00 in penny's running a round the bench) After many people telling me to use wheel weights I finally did. You can get them from NAPA for around 83 cents a stick. That is 2 oz with easy to cut sections and doubled faces tape. One of my top ten easy MRR tips. Penny's are cheaper, 10 penny's make a oz, but a lot quicker and I no longer glue my fingers together! Your friend Ken This is the first time I've heard about wheel weights. What exactly are they and how are they attached? For boxcars, I use 1/4 oz. metal weights that have an adhesive backing. The problem I have is with gondolas and flats. I can't use the metal weights on these for obvious reasons in these. When they are running empty, they are terribly underweighted and prone to derail in long trains.
cudaken Tom, I use to use penny's and Liquid Nails, most of the penny's held fine but some did come lose. (bet I have $3.00 in penny's running a round the bench) After many people telling me to use wheel weights I finally did. You can get them from NAPA for around 83 cents a stick. That is 2 oz with easy to cut sections and doubled faces tape. One of my top ten easy MRR tips. Penny's are cheaper, 10 penny's make a oz, but a lot quicker and I no longer glue my fingers together! Your friend Ken
Tom, I use to use penny's and Liquid Nails, most of the penny's held fine but some did come lose. (bet I have $3.00 in penny's running a round the bench)
After many people telling me to use wheel weights I finally did. You can get them from NAPA for around 83 cents a stick. That is 2 oz with easy to cut sections and doubled faces tape. One of my top ten easy MRR tips.
Penny's are cheaper, 10 penny's make a oz, but a lot quicker and I no longer glue my fingers together!
Your friend Ken
This is the first time I've heard about wheel weights. What exactly are they and how are they attached?
For boxcars, I use 1/4 oz. metal weights that have an adhesive backing. The problem I have is with gondolas and flats. I can't use the metal weights on these for obvious reasons in these. When they are running empty, they are terribly underweighted and prone to derail in long trains.
jecorbett.
These would be the weights that Auto Mechanics use to balance the wheel rims on automobiles so that your car runs smoothly down the road. If you are friendly with your mechanic, he will probably give you some of the old ones that he has taken of when installing new tires for a customer. It is customary to remove the old weights and install new ones as no two tires are balanced alike. Just cut off small pieces as needed to weight your cars as required.
Blue Flamer.
Edit.
Apologies to all.
When I started to answer this question we were still on page one and it had not been answered. I started to answer but was taken away from the computer in the middle by "She who must be obeyed", for something more important. (What is more important than trains.) By the time that I got back to what I was doing and got it posted, the question had already been answered.
yeah, tom. for years i used elmer's saf-t cement, an acrylic contact cement for cork roadbed and such. it was water clean up and worked great. i haven't been able to find it in my area for years so i am back to dap. talk about a cheap high. next track laying project i might try acrylic in a tube like guys are talking about to stick down flex track.
a while back, i contacted Borden's and asked who sold it around here but they acted like the guys a des plaines.
just another down side of staying close to home when you live in a town with an infestation of only 5000 people.
grizlump
grizlump9 des plaines hobbies sold a bunch of cabooses years ago that had the weights stuck to the floor with contact cement and the floors and underframes warped so badly the couplers would not even mate up. i complained about them and all i got was dumb looks.
des plaines hobbies sold a bunch of cabooses years ago that had the weights stuck to the floor with contact cement and the floors and underframes warped so badly the couplers would not even mate up.
i complained about them and all i got was dumb looks.
Griz,
Maybe that's because they were the folks who were inhaling the contact cement fumes. LOL! FYI, there are acrylic or water-based contact cements available on the market.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
i can't stess this enough. stay away from goo or any other solvent based contact cement inside of cars.
i complained about them and all i got was dumb looks. thankfully, i was able to correct the problem with the several i had bought but it took a bit of work.
As I noted in an earlier thread, those weights are available at auto parts places that sell to garages etc. They come in a box with enough weights to last a lifetime.
Hope this helps. Also the have an adhesive strip, peal and stick. They are the ones used on mag wheels as I understand it. Mine have never come loose.
Dave
I put lead weights in my Chessie boxcars. I tried using gummy poster-tack at first, but now I just use a dollop of rubber cement.
I've used Loctite Houseware Repair adhesive with good results. I gives off fumes but doesn't seem to attack plastic. I've had some weights in Bowser cars attached with this stuff for 5 years with no sign of loosening.
jecorbettFor boxcars, I use 1/4 oz. metal weights that have an adhesive backing.
Jecorbett, same thing. If you are getting them from a hobby shop, they cost more. Here is how I do my flat cars.
Been under the car for 3 years and none have fell off.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
I use silicone bathtub caulk, the stuff that smells like vinegar while it hardens. Sticks to anything, does not attack plastic, available at any hardware store. It's got enough body to fill in fairly large gaps between the weight and the car floor. Many box cars on my pike have a big old bolt siliconed to the floor.
I would avoid Goo. It attacks plastic. And after time it gets so hard it is impossible to remove. The silicone stays soft and can be removed years later if needed.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
My favorite method for attaching weights inside freight cars is to screw them to the floor. I drill holes between the beams of the center sill, where they won't show when the car is on the track, and screw the weight to the top of the floor from inside. Over many years I've tried all kinds of adhesives, and none of them is as fast, positive, safe, and enduring as a properly installed machine screw. I included this method in my article, "Building resin freight car kits," in the February Model Railroader – see box 5 on page 52. (And while resin kits are the subject of that article, it shows several techniques, like screwing in weights, that are useful in other kinds of models.)so long,Andy
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
I have actually had Walthers Goo in an enclosed car warp the plastic as it slowly releases gas fumes that needed an escape route. Darndest thing I ever saw (well ... one of the darndest). I also had it bubble up and lift the deck off a P2K flatcar! That was a good opportunity to use one of those really nice lazer cut wood decks instead. I have learned my lesson. A tiny drilled hole or two should prevent this. All of this by the way was AFTER I had read a warning about Goo in MR but somehow didn't believe them.
Adhesive caulk will work. Walthers Goo will but be careful about the solvent based fumes in an enclosed car. People have had it warp plastic. My preference is silicone caulk. Dries flexible, holds strong yet is easily removed if needed.
I've recently used Elmer's Nano Glue (in the orange bottle), seems to work well (has to be clamped as it expands a bit when drying) but I have no longevity results yet. I'll revisit this post in 5 years and let you know how it worked out.
Alan
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
tstage In the past I've used thicker CA to affix the weights inside my Accurail and Branchline boxcars. However, because some weight "plates" aren't perfectly flat and the CA dries stiff and is generally brittle, the weight sometimes pops back up and rattles around. I also don't like the way the CA attacks the styrene and turns it whitish. The plus to CA is that it dries fairly quickly. I just tried using Hob-E-Tac on a repaired boxcar. So far (a whole day now!) it's worked fine. The key: Just like spreading it on tree armatures, let it completely dry so that it becomes tacky to the touch. I thought I also heard someone try rubber cement one time. Anyhow, I'm just curious what some of the rest of you use for affixing weights to boxcars and/or hoppers. Thanks for your answers... Tom
In the past I've used thicker CA to affix the weights inside my Accurail and Branchline boxcars. However, because some weight "plates" aren't perfectly flat and the CA dries stiff and is generally brittle, the weight sometimes pops back up and rattles around. I also don't like the way the CA attacks the styrene and turns it whitish. The plus to CA is that it dries fairly quickly.
I just tried using Hob-E-Tac on a repaired boxcar. So far (a whole day now!) it's worked fine. The key: Just like spreading it on tree armatures, let it completely dry so that it becomes tacky to the touch. I thought I also heard someone try rubber cement one time.
Tom,The few times I found it necessary to add extra weight I use Walthers Goo.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Scotch Mounting Tape product code 314P. 1 inch wide and 3 1/2 yards in a roll. i buy it a wally-world. it is a quality USA product (unless they changed) and works better that the el cheapo import foam tapes.
i've been using it for about 15 years and nothing has come loose yet. normally i use it to mount wheel weights or pieces thereof inside car bodies. you can mooch or buy the used weights from anyplace that sells tires. a pair of heavy duty cutters will snip them down to the size and weigh you need. a few strokes across the flat surface of the weight with a large file cleans and smooths the lead so it sticks good to the tape. (yes mother, they are lead but i wasn't going to put them in my mouth)