[:(]Saturday I turned 72 and got a digital food scale.[8D] I decided to check it out and weighed several cars. They all came up “over weight!”[:O] I believe the scale is correct. It is my old regular scale with the tiny lines (which I had trouble counting) marking the ounces that threw me off.[banghead]
What do you think? Should I try to put the cars on a diet or just keep them as they are? [%-)] The difference is anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 ounce. This brings a second question about measuring car length which I will post separately. I have HO scale.
Don’t count on the new scale being accurate!! When I was diagnosed with diabetes & bought a food scale, I found out it was way off!! Buy a couple of 1 oz fishing weights, have your local post office check them, and then check your scale! If it is accurate, I can’t imagine 1/4 oz being enough to affect the tracking of your cars. My[2c]
What scale? HO or N?
In N 1/2 ounce could be a problem. In HO, 1/2 ounce isn’t a problem at all. For purposes of weighting a car, you measure the body length, not length over the couplers. Better to have a car slightly heavy than light, at least that’s always worked for me. Just try and not run light cars in front of heavy ones; you would be asking for mondo tracking problems.
I am certainly no expert but when we are talking about 1/4 ounce of a 4 ounce weight, I wouldn’t worry about it. Half an ounce? but probably no worry either. I use an old brass beam balance postal scale and weight to ± 1/4 ounce. Never noticed any problems.
The only detrimental effect that I can think of is slightly faster wearing of axle pockets in plastic sideframes and that should be minimal. Other than that, for every ten cars the loco will “feel” like it’s pulling eleven.
I don’t think you can tell the difference unless you’re using a calibrated lab scale measuring in grams. A typical postal scale won’t tell you the difference.
When you consider that NMRA weighting standards are based on how many actual inches long a model is, it is plain there is a degree of tolerance built into the standards. There are the cars that simply cannot be brought up to full standards yet they operate just fine. Sometimes center of gravity matters as much as actual weight; other times, it is the quality of the trucks that matters. And there are those who disregard NMRA standards (in either direction) and just weigh their cars to their own consistent standards.
If your cars operate OK I’d leave them alone. By the way I also use a digital scale and have the NMRA standards taped to the wall but I don’t agonize about 1/4 ounces.
If I have weighed a car and find it meets NMRA/Nelson standards, I write a “W” on the box. I got in that habit years ago when I finally got around to assembling a huge backlog of unbuilt kits and converting older cars from horn hooks to Kadee couplers. I also weighed them at that time and I’d write “KD” and “W” on the box.
just to add my 2 cents…I made a special ruler for measuring the cars…it is marked in ounces (according to the NMRA RPs) instead of inches…no conversion chart needed…just measure the car in ounces