I’m still working on my passenger cars. Right now, I have a trio of ECW PRR P70s that are a bit too light. I’ve replaced the plastic wheelsets with metal ones, and stuffed lead into all of the underbody details. Even with all that, the cars will still derail as they’re too light. I’m thinking of laying down some sheet lead inside the car, and then putting some plastic coach seats on top of that. Any thoughts?
Adding weight will help to keep them on the rails, but if they “keep derailing” as you say, then maybe an inspection of the trackwork is also in order.
Andrew
The average weight should be around 4 lbs for a passenger car.
Gaaa!! 4 pounds?!?!?!
I was just going to say put a layer of lead shot on the bottom with a coat of Elmer’s.
#8’s or #7 1/2’s would work and put the seats over that…
Oh, hee hee [:I] I thought he was talking about G scale cars! Yeah, 4lbs each is awesome when you’ve got 8 or 10 of them being pulled by a live steamer!
What scale is he talking about anyway? Please try to remember that we all aren’t in HO scale.
In anycase, I’m thinking it’s a trackability problem more than a weight issue. Is the track laid correctly? Are the curve radii too tight? Are the trucks too tight/loose? Body mount or truck mount couplers? Need more info. Throw me a bone here people.
G scale… Well, that makes sense.
Since he mentioned the 70’s are made by ECW I think they are HO scale…
I agree though - not everybody is in HO and need more info!!
My Walthers HO cars never tracked well until I loosened the screws holding the side frames to the center a little.
Oops…they’re HO scale. Sorry about that. All the cars have body-mount couplers, and are running metal wheelsets in the stock trucks. They only seem to derail when I back the trains into my station. It might be that the switcher I’m using is a bit too powerful and simply forces the cars off.
Are you using body mounted couplers or talgo (I realize that the ECW trucks don’t have a talgo bolster)??? Also, the trucks that come with the ECW core kits aren’t the greatest in the world. Are the sideframes of the trucks coming into contact with the frogs in your turnouts??
i just add more metal wieghts on the inside.
Have you used anything to keep the floors straight, or installed styrene into the sides to keep floor straight?
I’ll have to check for frog-contact the next time I run a train. I’m at work right now 
I don’t think the problem lies with the switcher. I suggest a logical aproach to the problem:
- use a different loco and see if the problem persists. If it goes away, then check the couplers/wheels on the switcher.
- Back one car at a time into the station, isolate if the problem is with an individual piece.
- If only one car derails, change direction of travel and try again. See if you can see or hear a problem with that piece.
- Add one car at a time and until you duplicate the derailment. It may be a factor of a trying to back body mount couplers around a curve (you didn’t say if it was straight or not). There is compression stress on backing as opposed to tension stress when operating normaly.
- If it is a curved approach to the station, I would recommend at least 30" radius curve at that point.
- Ebay off your HO stuff and buy G scale and not worry about such things happening. (just threw that in!)
Isolate and identify the problem, then use logic and deduction to solve it.
If your dealing in HO like I am, take a look at the coupling of the cars. If you have other cars like freight and they do not derail, then it’s not the track. On the passenger cars, are the couplers attached to the body or the trucks? If it’s attached to the body, I strongly think that this is your problem. I have 22" curve on my layout and run mostly passenger cars form IHC. I WILL NOT COUPLE THEM BY THE BODY., but I would replace the horn hook (factory installed)couplers to Mchenry knuckle passenger couplers. Passenger cars are like 18 wheeler truck, they make wide turns. So if the couplers are on the body, when one car starts to turn, it will take the following car with it. The pass cars will get more movement if coupled by the trucks.
Now, the pass cars may be too light too. There are numerous ways to fill weight into pass cars. Here are some things that you can use if you have any.
- Clay (inside the car)
- wax (inside the car)
- If you have any old freight cars that you are not running. Take the long metal weight out of that. 2 or 3 spaced out should be good. Not on top of each other. And it should be permantly placed.
- Rubber tiles, floor tiles or wall. (I like wall tiles because you can break them off in the amount desired. Then you can decorated your flooring inside the car plus it’s plaster. Which is nicely weighed.
I had these problems too, but not any more. I can run any one of my passenger trains (8 cars) at the maximum speed of the loco with no derailments. Even through turnouts.
Oh, 1 more thing. Make sure when placing weight in pass cars, there’s 3 places where weight should be.
On each end where the trucks are located and in the middle. Or throught the whole inside of the car. Forget about underneath where the detail are.
I’m quite sure this will help a lot.
The underbody detail is molded into the floor of these cars. They make ice little pockets to hide weight and keep the center of gravity low.
True!, but you have to be careful not to put something in there that hangs down too low and scrape the track. That’s why I rule that Out.
LOL! Not likely my friend! [;)] [:D]
Try backing S-L-O-W-E-R through switches…At the club I routinely back (non RP20.1 weighted) 4-15 car passenger trains including through a #4 crossover from the coach yard to the station using a Hobbytown of Boston RS3 as the station’s assigned switcher…Also check the gauge of the wheels,coupler height and track gauge …As mention test each car one at a time.
The battery boxes and water tank and such are hollow from the “inside”. You are just filling in the void created in the manufactureing process. You aren’t attaching anything to the underbody of the car.
The battery boxes and water tank and such are hollow from the “inside”. You are just filling in the void created in the manufactureing process. You aren’t attaching anything to the underbody of the car.
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My point exacly. Inside the car only.
My point exacly. Inside the car only.
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By filling the underbody details with lead, the weight would remain “inside” the car. Apperantly you have not dealt with an ECW kit.
Thanks for the replies. So far, the cars seem to be behaving themselves. I went over everything–track, wheels, etc. I did, however add some additional weight inside the car. A pair of Athearn’s flat (not offset) passenger car weights did the trick. But, that wasn’t the problem–it turned out that the coupler was rubbing against the diaphragm…causing the car to derail.