i am thinking of building one of american model builders’ L&N ex florida east coast wood caboose kits. Does that kit and other AMB caboose kits come with a metal floor weight, or do you have to buy that part frokm somewhere else?
I built one of their CB&Q caboose around 12 years ago. It did not come with a weight. I think I just used some nuts that I had in the garage.
I had a new roof installed on my house and saved the lead sleeves that fit over the miscellaneous vents sticking out of the roof. This works great…just cut and flatten.
And take a lesson from a guy who built a craftsman wood kit of a caboose following the instructions to a “T”: weigh the kit parts before completion of the car and add the required weight before gluing on the roof and making added weight impossible.
The instructions never mentioned adding weight as a step and I guess I never grasped just how light a mostly-wood kit would be. The person who wrote the instructions took it for granted that the builder would know all that.
As for “free” weights I also saved the sheet steel pop-outs from electrical junction boxes that were all over the floor of our house after some major electrical work. And don’t forget that most weights that you can purchase cost more than their comparable weight in pennies would cost.
Dave Nelson
Yeah, just use pennies. They’re non-magnetic and practically free. I have a little piggy bank in my train room that I use to collect pennies specifically for weighting freight cars. I even put a sticker on the side that says “Model train weight fund” [:D]
No, no weight is included in these excellent kits. I have built a couple of 1200 series Northern Pacific shorty 24 foot Cabeeses and would like to build a couple more, if they ever offer them again.