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Determining The Correct Car Weight
Club member Troy asks readers:
“I have just worked why I have been having a few problems with train stability on my HO track. I think the weight of some of my HO flat cars is too light and needs increasing, but I don’t know by how much. Is there an easy way to tell if a car is too light? What’s the best way to add weight, where, and how much? Thanks to everyone.”
5 Responses to Determining The Correct Car Weight
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http://nmra.org/car-weight This is National Model Railroad Association pretty detailed on weight of cars. Hope it helps.
I suggest you go to NMRA .org, they have model railroad specs . Bill
yes it about 4 oz per car i use a postal scale because a make some cars with loads some end up over so i want to know how much. if i add weight i put it over the trucks split the wight into both trucks. some flat cars have had to add some and used some bird shot it works well and put it between the under ribs glue it in paint it flat black you not see it
I weighed every one of my cars using a cheap postal scale you can buy at any hardware store for less than $10. Then, using the formula, 1+(0.5 x length of car), I found the weight expected for HO scale cars. That formula was from one of those sites mentioned above. While it might not be totally accurate, it will be close enough.
I went further and put the values I found in a spreadsheet, then calculated the weight in ounces I would have to add. Out of 100 cars, only 4 or 5 did NOT need a weight change. (a couple were over but I left those alone).
BTW, a good source of weights for cars is tire shops. When tire shops replace weights to balance wheels, they can’t use the old ones again, so they pretty well just throw them out, or have them recycled. Give a guy a couple bucks and he’ll give you a handful.