I have three Tichy 40' flatcars...
...but even with a load of pipe (plastic Bic pen barrels), they weigh only 2 ounces-or-so...
I have another five that I converted into gondolas, with scratchbuilt sides and ends, but empty, they're not much heavier, either...
Here's one of the four in-service for the TH&B...
...while the fifth one, lettered for one of my freelanced roads, serves as a cinder car (based on a photo of a very similar car used by the TH&B)...
The gondolas run well with "live" loads of scrap, and there is some room inside the pipe loads for some lead - I'll make some suitably-sized moulds and cast whatever is needed.
Wayne
I haven't done one of the 40' Tichy cars this way, but have used this methid to add weight to cars with minimal space for it.
I am still on the same bag of lead birdshot I bought back in the 1980s. If the lead is hard to get now, steel shot could be substituted. With the car upside down, carefully fill the open spaces between the frame and crossmembers with the shot. Note carefully where the wheels will swivel when the truck turns. Then I mix two part epoxy and drizzle it over the shot, then let it set up. A space that is little taller than a piece of shot is all that is needed to add considerable weight to a car.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
SeeYou190 That model is a challenge. The best I was able to do with Kadee metal trucks and sheet lead was 2.5 ounces. To get it to recommended weight you need a load, or bulk up the sides and get another layer of lead beneath the floor. -Kevin
-Kevin
AMENDED POSTING: My bad my bad I just re read the title of the thread. My Tichy flat is their 53 ft car not the 40' car, which lacks the fishbelly side that can hide some weight. So the weight I got it up to is a bit light. But I decided to leave the posting as written for whatever it is worth. But it is perhaps irrelevant to the original poster.
Dave
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I just had a funny experience; went to the shelves and pulled down the box with the Tichy flat car and even without going to the digital scale I could tell it was plenty heavy. "What are these guys beefing about now?" I wondered. Then I looked closer and saw that at some point I had put an all-metal Varney flatcar into a Tichy box. (not a shabby model actually if you find a way to weather the metal deck to look like wood.)
It turns out the Tichy flatcar was in a Cannonball Car Shops box. Heh. Now the hunt is on - where is the CCS boxcar?
So I turned it over and saw that even though that is a really nice car that ordinarily I would detail the underside to some extent, I decided practical running was more important than even a semblance of a detailed underframe and brake pipe and rodding system. Like Kevin I replaced the steel weight with sheet lead (which I always paint with thick acrylic paint to avoid inadvertent touching of raw lead) and two fairly big chucks on lead in the middle of the center sill, and two other lead chunks to either side of the center sill hidden by the fishbelly sides of the car. Total weight 4.1 oz which is close enough to my standard to be acceptable. I doubt if the metal wheels added much measurable weight and I suspect metal trucks would also be negligible help.
the old trick for adding just a bit more weight: wrapping solder around the axles.
The Tichy flatcar deck is so nice I hate to hide it forever with a load just so it will track. Besides I like to see lots of empty flatcars in my trains because my biggest industry on the layout was shipper as well as receiver and a voracious customer for empty flatcars.
But now that I have seen the Tichy flatcar again I need to do a bit of thinking as to how to add a bit of visible detail to that underframe. Even if it means cutting an air reservoir in half ....
Dave Nelson
I have three of these cars, and I use them as idler flats for my carfloat. I have equipped them with Intermountain metal wheelsets, but not any additional weight. I am fussy about my trackwork.
As idler cars, they are between the locomotive and the rest of the string of cars, both for pushing and pulling. I was also very careful to lay my track, including the carfloat, completely flat.
I never have trouble with these cars.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I have a couple of different loads on mine right now, a Walthers emd prime mover, two Farmall tractors, and two have a pair of life like scenemaster gear loads. I think in one of the model railroader magazines, someone was talking about liquid gravity? Would that stick to the bottom of the model?
Maybe a hollow lumber load with stick on wheel weights?
That model is a challenge.
The best I was able to do with Kadee metal trucks and sheet lead was 2.5 ounces.
To get it to recommended weight you need a load, or bulk up the sides and get another layer of lead beneath the floor.
Living the dream.
I'm just curious to see what everyone has done to add weight to their tichy flat cars, mine are always coming off the tracks. I do have loads on each of them but they are just plastic and not heavy enough. I'm not too concerned about being prototypical or anything just as long as you can't see it from eye level. Thanks!