I am thinking of buying a couple of athearn heavyweight passenger car kits from someone but they have no weights with them. Athearn is sold out of both flat and offset weights. Is there any manufacturer which makes suitable weights to use on athearn heavyweight passenger car kits?
Hi Caboose63,
Just for your consideration.
One of the easiest solid weight sources I use is flat bar steel. The cool factor is the flexibility in that it can be quickly cut with a dremel cut wheel, a chop saw, or die grinder to fit just about any freight or passenger car. You can If you decide to take this route, first measure the inside width of your cars. You likely have space for 3/4" wide bar that is 1/16" or 1/8" thick.
You can find flat bar in various thicknesses and widths at hardware and “home” stores.
I like brass myself, easier to cut and tap, although somewhat more expensive.
Am I recalling correctly that the Athearn steel weights somehow were screwed down? Not sure it much matters, as you can always epoxy them down.
I would highly recommend the weight kits made by Adair Shops.
I replaced the weights that Athearn provides with the Adair weights in all of my Athearn heavyweights. Such an improvement and the Adair weights allow for interiors. I never liked how one of the Athearn weights bends up and takes up half of the cars interior space.
Walthers is sketchy at best for stocking Adair weight kits, so I typically order direct. Here’s a link:
You can also use automotive steel weights that can be purchased with double sided tape attached to them.
The most important aspects of adding weight to the Athearn heavyweight passenger cars is the amount of weight and the placement of it to ensure proper balance.
Rich
If you want cheap weight, use what fishermen use; fishing weights. They’re soft metal, so they’re easily hammered to whatever shape or thickness you want. After determining how much weight the car needs, I glue them in place with 5 minute epoxy.
2nd the motion… I use these as well but cut them with a hacksaw. I use a silicone adhesive or double sided foam tape. I like the adhesive better as the weights sit lower. I also spray paint flat black before installation
Hi,
I built up a string of them some time ago. For the money, they are excellent cars, especially when KDs, diaghprams, metal wheels, and some decals are applied.
To answer your question, you can buy self adhesive car weights (search Walthers website for mfg), or use good ol American pennies - securely glued of course.
Since virtually every other weighting material costs more when purchased in hobby-sized quantities, I generally use pennies when weighting my rolling stock. I agree that steel flat stock creates the cleanest and least obtrusive car weights but it will likely cost more than the same weight in pennies. You can save a little money by purchasing your steel (or brass) flat stock at a local metal shop that sells its scrap cuttings to the public.
Just for reference, a 1/8" x 3/4" x 1" bar weighs around 0.8 ounces.
Any kind of metal can be used to weight cars. I use sheet lead, which I get from my local lumber yard. They carry it for flashing on roofs and around chimneys. The Athearn weights were designed to do double duty, they carried electricity from the trucks to a lamp which cleverly screwed into a recess between the two weights, as well as supplying ballast.
I like the Athearn heavy weight cars, they look like the common passenger cars that was all we had to ride in back in the day.
I use the lead flashing as well. It is easy to cut up with scissors into small pieces that fit the recesses in the floor. When filled with lead, the car is very close to the NMRA recommended weight standard for that car length, and the interior is totally free to install and interior. This photo shows a car body with the stock Athearn weight next to one filled wit sheet lead
So, THAT’S what the hole in the one weight was for!?!?
If you looking for inexpensive automotive weights with the adhesive backing, the best place to go is the Harbor Freight store. With their coupon for 20% off I was able to purchase 48 weights for around $6, much cheaper than Adair.
Frank
There are also flat lead weights sold for use with the “pine car” kits (Cub Scout Pinewood Derby cars) at most hobby and hobby related stores. They come in 1/8 to 1 oz self adheasive pieces and some in strip form have a hole drilled for a wood screw. Work well and are cheap.
Unless you are trying to light the cars with original equipment lighting kit, why bother with the weights? I’ve have several sets of Athearn heavyweight passenger cars without the weights that been in use since the 70’s and I haven’t had derailing or woobling problems, even before I replaced the horn hook couples with Kadee’s. They’ve been run on radii as little as 15" in their time. I do not have the couplers body mounted, which may make a difference. I don’t know for sure. I guess I’ll have to consider what to do with the weights since there is a possible demand for them. Anyway, no weights makes a clean setup for interiors and there are better lighting options available than the Athearn lighting kits. Just my experience and thoughts.
I have a couple of train sets of the Athearn Heavyweights and 20 or so of their streamlined cars. I use the standard Athearn weighs and a few pieces of sheet lead, usually right over the trucks, to bring them up to standard.
I use the ‘hole in the weight’ for lighting the cars with a single bulb. I cut a piece of standard typing paper to cover the windows and act as a diffuser for the light.
Electrical pick-up is accomplished with sheet brass wipers and transfered to the plates via the truck screw and a small wire.
Properly weighted and with K-Dee couplers, the cars run and back nicely.
The general idea is the same for both heavyweight and streamlined Athearn cars.
There is a short tutorial on my website where I overhauled several streamlined cars. The pickups are shown there, Go to the How’d You Do That page and click on the thumbnail of the observation car.