Seems to me that I've read something about a two ounce average but I can't remember. I use Kadee and McHenry couplers and would like to know what the correct weight figure is to make these couplers work correctly. Most of my older cars seem heavy enough and some are possibly too heavy such as some old cast metal cars from Roundhouse. I have seen some cars for sale on ebay that have been weighted to 4 and 5 ounces. Is that too much? I have not weighed any of my own so I can't say where mine fit in but I know when one feels too light and it's pretty obvious that the builder did not use any weights. What do you guys recommend for average weight? Thanks for your help.
Bill
The National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) recommended weight is 1 oz plus an additional 1/2 oz per inch of actual car length, for HO scale rolling stock. There has been a lot of discussion (and controversy) over this recommended weight in these forums in the past due to the fact that the NMRA's RP was established many years ago and should perhaps be revised.
I usually leave the Atlas cars alone, especially the 36' and 40 footers.
I like my rolling stock to be between 3-4 ounces for 40 footers or less and just enough extra on the larger ones to hold them to the track.
Some cars behave well enough that they dont need weighting. Others are light as a feather and need an anvil inside to stay on the rail.
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
I use #9 chilled lead shot out of a 25 pound bag secured with Elmer's gel school glue underneath flatcars to give them a little heft.
Now I have something to go by, time to start weighing my rolling stock. Thanks again,
Thanks Joe for the idea. Beats calculating the weights all the time. You have won a convert.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
The biggest electric train I saw was a #1 gauge Hudson and was told the front was 50+ pounds.
Anything bigger rates live steam in my humble opinion.
SSW9389 wrote:I took the 30 ton empty weight of an average freight car and divided it by the scale of 87 and an HO scale car should weigh something like 689 pounds. I would love to see the bench work that can hold up a train of those babies!
I use pennies (2.7 grams a piece) and nickels (5 grams a piece)
You want all your rolling stock to weigh about the same. If you have light cars and heavy cars in the same train the heavy cars tend to pull the light cars off the track going around curves. And long cars want to be heavier than short cars cause the couplers tug the car sideways on curves. The sidewise tug gets stronger as the car gets longer. The NMRA recommended practice was written back in the days before plastic injection molding when rolling stock had a lot of heavy Zamac casting in it. Like complete cast Zamac undercarriages. Since it is very difficult to lighten a car, the NMRA standard was set a little heavy to accomodate the substantial numbers of heavy cars in service in those days. And once a standard is established, nobody wants to change it. I mean who wants to reweight every car in their fleet?
I use the NMRA recommended practice on my layout. In several cases derailing cars straightened out and stayed on the track after I weighted them up to the NMRA recommendation. And if you interchange your rolling stock on friend's layouts or down at the club, you will find that most folk follow the NMRA recommendations and your rolling stock will work better if you do too. On the other hand there are folk who weight to a much lighter standard, claiming it is enough to stay on the track and it lets their locomotives handle longer trains up the grades. Your mileage may vary.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
The NMRA system is too complicated for me, I need quick and simple, so this is what I use:
.
40 feet and shorter: 4 ounces
41 feet to 59 feet: 5 ounces
60 feet and longer: 6 ounces
This has proven easy and 100% effective for me.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Necro thread.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddy Necro thread.
Modus operandi!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I use an old diet scale I picked up at a rummage sale to weight my cars. Because I am running a switching layout I am not concerned if the cars come out slightly heavier than NMRA standards since the longest train I run is about 6 cars.
Joe Staten Island West
I made a ruler (marked off in ounces) based on the recommended practice, it is part of my bench test track
no calculating ..put the car on the track & know immediately what the suggested weight should be