i need a few athearn heavyweight passenger flatweights but they are not in stock. is there a good alternative for athearn’s out of stock flat weight for their out of stock heavyweight passenger car kits? i bought one of the kits couple of weeks ago at model train flea market at central michigan university and it had no floor weights at all.
Palace Car Co. makes interior kits for Athearn cars that includes a floor piece that is a flat painted metal weight. I don’t know if they sell them separately from the interior kits or not, but you could contact them and see. I’ve used their interior kits on a couple of old Rivarossi cars and they work well and the floorpiece adds a nice “heft” to the car.
Was it me, I’d make my own weights out of sheet lead. It’s sold for flashing at lumberyards and roofing supply places.
Why do you need the weights? I built 16 Athearn heavyweight passenger cars 35 plus years ago and haven’t had any problems with them. Put the weights in a box that’s still on a shelve taking up room.
I use adhesive backed metal wheel weights. They come in strips of 1/4 ounces weights and make it easy to distribute the weight where it is needed. I try to meet NMRA standards which, for HO scale, is 1 ounce plus 1/2 ounce for each one inch of car length. Thus, the total weight of a 10" passenger car should be 6.0 ounces.
Rich