Any easy/preferred method to add some weight to locomotives?
Replacing plastic parts with brass castings will help. I saw a product once called Tungsten putty, they said it’s denser than lead, and available from several sources, that you can mold and add to the inside of a locomotive. I’ve not used it, but I’ve used moldable lead from A-Line before and really liked it.
Just as important as adding weight is to make sure the locomotive is not overly cab heavy, more often the case with the motor usually located in the back, or front heavy. Balance is important here.
Alvie
Find some empty space inside the locomotive. Fill it with lead. If no empty space, you are pretty much out of luck.
Alvie has a good point. Always start by seeing how the balance is before adding weight, because that will be a good guide of where it needs to be. Otherwise, you risk going through the trouble of putting weight in where it’s convenient, rather than where it’ll do the most good.
Beyond that, there are two likely places up front to add weight. On many locos, the smokebox front comes off. There may be space behind that. If the stack is hollow, then you can often squeeze some weight down into it.
Then there’s the old trick of adding a heavy toolbox to the pilot deck.
In the rear, the cab is obvious. One thing that’s best is to make its addition there not obvious. The underside of the cab roof is a good spot.
It depends a lot on the locomotive, but here are some photos of how I added weight to the Bachmann Berkshire:
In addition to the weight shown in the photos, I filled the domes with lead shot and epoxied it in place, and added several more stick on weights on the inside of the backhead.
I was able to add over five oz to these locos which dramaticly improved their pulling power.
And to the tender:
This was all part of a project to turn them into freelanced heavy Mikados, I did five of these for my ATLANTIC CENTRAL - here is one complete except repainting:
Sheldon
i have not tried adding weight to any of the late plastic steam loco models. my experience has all been with brass models.
i had added weight to them using either sheet lead or lead wheel weights. i cut and shape the lead to fit into spaces inside the boiler cavity and epoxy it into place.
a word of caution, just because you have the room, do not add too much weight or you can seriously damage the gear box. this is not so much of an issue with switchers that run back and forth at slow speeds but road engines can destroy their gears pretty quickly if you add too much weight.
also, you want the wheels to still slip before you burn the motor out.
balance is important for most efficient operation but can be hard to achieve if you have limited space to add weight.
tungsten putty was mentioned but that stuff sells for around 8 bucks an ounce or more depending upon your source.
an alternative would be to mix bird shot with elmers glue and pour it into place. i have done that but it was too messy for my tastes, besides, beating lead with a hammer on an anvil satisfies my frustrations to some extent.
charlie
As was mentioned, more weight added in the wrong place can have an adverse affect on pulling power - the ideal set-up is to keep the loco balanced at the centre-point of the driver wheelbase. While I’ve never heard of excessive weight damaging gears, it can damage the motor. An easy test for this is to place the loco on the track, then, while holding the tender with your hand, apply power. If the drivers slip easily, you’re well within the weight limits. If the drivers don’t slip, your loco is too heavy and you run the risk of burning out the motor. If you use traction tires or treatments such as Bullfrog Snot, it’s probably best to test the current draw to see if it’s within the safe limits for the motor. Personally, I wouldn’t use traction tires or similar devices.
Some locomotives, like the Bachmann Berkshire, have lots of readily-available room for added weight, while others require enough work that it removes them from the “easy-to-do” category.
The Proto USRA 0-8-0 is one such loco. Mine ran very nicely, but had trouble with more than two cars when operating on the grade where I intended to use it. I was going to get rid of it, but decided to have a look inside to see if there was room for adding some weight. Since I don’t like operating lights, I removed the small circuit board and wires for the headlight and filled the space with lead shaped to fit. I also removed the flywheel - it was so small that I couldn’t see it being of much use. I shortened the motor shaft and filled the cavity with more lead. To keep the loco balanced, I added more lead inside the cab. This more than doubled the loco’s pulling power, so I decided to keep her, adding even more weight in the lead-filled brass air tanks. While I was at it, I also lengthened the frame to accommodate the CNR-style front end, re-worked the rear of the frame, replaced all of the
I remember reading an article about how to adjust the spring suspension on steam engines (not sure if it was exclusively for brass locos). Adjusting the suspension might let all the drivers get better contact with the rail, thus resulting in more tractive effort, even without added weight? I plan on doing this to a brass (an old Westside loco?) Ma&Pa 0-6-0 I’ve had since I was little.
Also, Tony Koester tuned his fleet of steam engines to get maximum pulling power; check out those articles too.
Well, not all steam loco models have sprung drivers, so on many there is nothing to adjust in that department.
It is important that locos with sprung drivers also be well balanced and that the springs are niether too soft or too stiff.
Many of todays diecast/plastic steamers have sprung drivers, but some do not, and others have only partly srung suspensions, that is some drivers sit solid in the frame, while others are sprung to follow the track.
A few other thoughts:
I understand and respect the view of those who do not care for traction tires, but my experiance with traction tires has been 99% positive. I have locos with traction tires, locos without traction tires, and locos on which I am testing BullFrogSnot.
In 40 years in this hobby, I have never burnt out a motor in a loco - with or without traction tires. Short of a defect, or a very low quailty train set loco, my view is that short of “abuse” it is likely pretty hard to burn up the average HO loco motor.
I model the 50’s, and like long trains. Which means big power, double headers, 35 - 50 car trains. Lots weight and traction tires are wonderfull things in my view.
My PCM Reading T-1’s (4-8-4) will pull most anything I put behind them, they have their traction tire drivers installed - BUT, the factory rubber traction tires have been replaced with soft plastic ones from Calumet Train
Old thread, I know, but I just stumbled upon it. I’ve added weight to nearly every engine I own, since I model in N Scale, and you generally need it to make engines pull well.
Here’s the skinny:
-
Tungsten is 1.7 x as heavy as lead. Look on line for Pinewood Derby shops that sell tungsten disks, cubes, or plates. It’s not cheap, but you can get a lot of weight into much less space. Tungsten is extremely hard. Don’t plan on cutting it, even with a Dremel or a hacksaw. You need to use the cubes, disks, whatever, just the way they come.
-
Pure sheet lead. You can get it at a good price from industrial suppliers like Roto Metals. You can buy a 12" x 12" sheet in many convenient thicknesses. It’s easy to cut and shape.
-
Forget lead wool, tungsten putty, or tungsten powder. The filler, glue, et al that make these products so flexible and easy to use also make their density plummet. Tungsten putty is no more dense than lead, for example.
As to where to put it. Balance is VERY important, at least as important as the weight itself. Rig up a simple “balance beam” just using a stiff metal ruler over a smooth rod (like a brass rod). Plunk the engine on it, and see where the center of balance is (you need to take the tender off to do this).
Try as hard as you can to add weight to get the center of balance right at the center of the set of drivers. If the engine is rear-heavy, add weight to the nose, for example. If you add weight to make the balance even worse, you may find that the engine actually pulls LESS even though you have made it heavier.
Good luck!
Nobody has mentioned that the additional weight helps with electrical pick-up as well. I have an Athearn Hustler that has good gears in it and weighs 12 ounces, of layered sheet lead. Tracks, pulls well and just about never stalls.
yup - definitely helps hold everything on the rails.
I’m gonna be mad when I start having to mess about with that on new loco purchases (all the ones I have right now, save a couple shelf-queens, have cast boilers).
I’m partial to using lead shot. #9 bird shot is very small and with a layer of white glue first and sprinkle a layer of shot… this compares to lead sheet. This is an easy way to selectively add weight to the little nooks and crannies. BB’s work well too and you can get a bottle of 6000 for about $10. at Wal Mart.
Mark H