PRETTY NEW AT THIS HOBBY. I SEE BOX CARS LISTED AS PLUG DOORS, DOUBLE DOORS, ETC. WHICH, IF ANY OF THESE HAVE A SLIDING DOOR THAT OPENS. WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO SLIP A WEIGHT INTO A CAR IF IT NEEDS ONE. THANKS[angel]
Hi, and welcome.
You should be able to pry the top of the box car off the frame…there may be tabs that you will have to find, or perhaps a screw into the truck bolsters that keep it all together…not sure. In any event, it is not often that a car needs weight added; the manufacturers have mostly been pretty good about getting them near the recommended weights. Remember that adding weight adds work to the locomotive, and that is especially true for grades.
Are you having trouble with the car…it won’t track and stay on the rails…what? You should purchase an NMRA guage right away if you are going to get into this hobby in a modest way. If there is one thing to check on any item you ever roll along your tracks it is the wheel guages…how far apart the flanges on them are.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY. I PRINTED OUT AN ARTICLE IN MODEL RAILROADER ABOUT HOW TO BANISH DERAILMENTS. RECOMMENDED WEIGHT FOR AN N-SCALE CAR IS 1/2 OZ PLUS .15 OZ PER INCH OF LENGTH. SOME OF THE CARS I PURCHASED ON E-BAY MUST BE THE OLDER STYLE AND I WONDERED IF THEY WERE WEIGHTED PROPERLY. DO I WANT PLASTIC OR STEEL WHEELS? THANKS.[C):-)]
Please turn off your caps lock. That is considered impolite on the internet.
Although I have a slew of plastic and metal wheels, I would recommend metal wheels, especially to a newcomer. They are just less likely to have ridges or flatspots or whatever wrong with them, and some people think they aid greatly in keeping track cleaner.
Regardless of the recommended weights, I always run my cars as light as I can and still have good operation. You will soon learn all that this means. More weight can help mask a lot of problematic issues. I prefer to resolve the issues and pull more cars with less difficulty as previously alluded to.
Sorry, I forgot to make the observation that USING CAPITALS IS TAKEN AS SHOUTING OR BEING ANGRY.
It can also be used for EMPHASIS when there is no provision for italics or bolding.
I agree with Virginian. Adding weights will often help you to feel better about a car’s performance…it allows you to conveniently forget that there may be a much better way to improve how it behaves because it will often cause the offender to remain on the rails and to follow behind the rest of the train. However, that added weight means you lose one other car that could make the entire train look less prototypically long or constructed. So, the obvious question is, why is the car not staying on the tracks?
a. Are the couplers at the right height, or are their arcs of motion not being accommodated by something on the frame of the car?
b. Are the wheels offset on their axles and one pair is therefore not tracking properly?
c. Is there a wobble in the wheels indicating a bent axle or a misshapen wheel? or
d. Is the car simply too light such that it gets lifted out of the rails by tension on the couplers on either end, or both?
You can see that adding weight first is perhaps premature, and will only serve to mask the real cause.
As to your original question here. The type of door doesn’t matter as much as whether they are “operating” doors or not. If they have doors just moulded on the model then the body can be separated as mentioned before. Also as mentioned above, I check wheel gauge, coupler height, truck motion, etc, and run them as they come from the manufacturer. Having said this, I don’t run 50 car trains through 18" radius curves either. Ken
The only cars I’ve ever seen that have opening doors are Athearn Blue Box kits. I have a few that I leave the doors open on.
Kadee doors open too. The Life-Like P2K kits have the option to glue them in any position.
The Bachmann Silver Series have doors that slide open and come with metal wheels.
Mike
Problem wth sliding doors is the railers are too fragile, or too big.
Some manufacturers make them , some to cement on, others are fake.
Really? About the caps. I use a computer at work. Am a bookkeeper for a gas and fuel jobber in two states. Have used the internet for ten years and this is the first time someone has told me that when I use caps it shows anger. Nor is it mentioned in any of the courses I have taken. But then there must be something to it or two of you would not have pointed it out to me. At least it must apply to these forums. I only use them as it is easier to read when your eyes are not 20/20 any longer. Live and learn. Remember John 3:16
I ought to stay away from this topic as I am certain it is going to get me beaten half to death before it is done.
I can’t answer as to whether any manufacturer, regardless of being HO-Scale or N-Scale (or any other scale for that matter), builds their cars to any kind of a weight standard. Those cars which tend to track well, particularly through switches, do so more because of the quality of the trucks than anything else. Although not completely unheard of, Kadee/Micro-Trains wheelsets tend to have better out-of-the-box gauging characteristics than some other brands. Even with Micro-Trains, however, it behooves one to check the gauge of the wheelsets before placing them in operation.
The NMRA Recommended Practice for car weight was ancient when I first joined in 1971. These Recommended Practices were, I am led to believe, drawn up in those heady days of yesteryear when trucks were, perhaps, just a little bit on the primitive side. The N-Scale recommendation has been factored from other scales, most assuredly HO-Scale.
The narrower the gauge - I did not say “Narrow Gauge” - the more sensitive trucks are going to be to track and switch irregularities and these irregularities are going to multiply in degrees of severity in these smaller scales. Undulations in track, for example, are more visible/observable in HO-Scale (and, therefore, more capable of correction) but the more flexible nature of HO trucks is going to be more compensatory. Car weight is one means of co
Thank you for your answer and explination, R.T.Poteet. Makes much sense to me. The weight information came from an article in M.R.M. It also included: Align every rail joint, Check and adjust the turnouts, Install coupler properly, Check and adjust wheelsets, Adjust truck mounting. and more. I do not know much about model railroad. On the other hand I have been a control line and radio control model airplane builder for 40 years and build from scratch. Building a model railroad layout is very exacting, if you do it right. Therefore you should follow normal practices to be successful. As I am going to use DCC I need to be careful about derailing or shorting out at turnouts. And shorting out does not occur usually unless the wheels don’t track right in the turnout. So I am told. Therefore my question in the first place. I find many helpful modelers in these forums. Also quite a few who seem very impressed with themselves and what they have to offer. But it is not my job to judge anyone. There is a much higher power than I who will do that. P.T.L.
Well said, rpoteet. Very well said.[:)][:)]
Question??[}:)][}:)]
What does wheel type, wheel gage, not tracking, etc., have with - wanting to know about cars with opening doors?
I think, some people are posting without reading the question that was asked!! Maybe, they are anticipating the next question?? Possibly psychic.
Yeah, then there are SOME of us who came to this thread expecting to hear about Jim Morrison and the boys.
To properly answer this question, a bit of history is in order. Years ago, single, sliding door boxcars were all that was around. As time passed, there were instances where larger doors were necessary for loading of larger items, so RR’s built cars with larger doors. When automobiles started traveling by rails (in the 20’s or 30’s), even larger openings were needed so the cars could be loaded and unloaded. Generally, these were double door cars (sometimes referred to as auto-boxcars). Some were even double-decked inside. Of course, double door boxcars weren’t limited to auto transportation, but that was one of their primary reasons for their introduction. As for the plug doors, sometimes shippers needed cars that were weather and insect proof, such as loading food-grade loads. The plug doors actually have rubber gaskets around the edges, and recess into the side of the car for a nice tight fit, sealing out weather and critters. When the door is opened, the latch bars swing the door outwards a few inches, and then the door can be rolled out of the way. I have a photo of a Southern Railway boxcar (and there were others) which had double doors on each side, one a standard sliding door, and the other a plug door.
The difference in the doors is of little concern as far as modeleing goes. These are simply models of real world cars. Now, if you get into matching cars with commodities, then it makes a difference. There’s too much for me to go into this now, but that should give you something to go on for now.
As for adding weight, most boxcars can be disassembled for this purpose.
Brad
Thank you for your reply tw. Forgive me for shortning your handle. Your description was very informative. Helped unload a box car loaded with 100# bags of chicken feed back in the 40’s. At that time I wasnt too interested in what type of door. Just wanted to get done as the bags weighed a few pounds less than I did. Have a Special Week.