I bought an Accurail boxcar kit from a hobby shop, and I noticed that the weight had to be attached to the inside. I have no idea what to do, other than drill holes through the bottom and the weight, but I didn’t want some of the underside details ruined. How can I attach the weight? I don’t want to leave the weight inside and let it roll around after the boxcar body is secured to the bottom and potentially damage it. Help please!
Use a contact cement. I find that Walthers Goo works just fine. Just don’t use too much, as the solvent could cause some damage to the plastic.
Adhesive. I like silicone bathtub caulk, the stuff that dries with an odor of vinegar. It will hold the factory weights and in fact it is strong enough to hold old bits of scrap metal to the car floor. I would not use Walther’s Goo. Goo is solvent based and can attack plastic or warp it.
When I have problems with the factory supplied weights, I use automotive stick on wheel weights. They’re cheap, quite available almost anywhere (Carquest, Napa, Crappy Tire, Pep Boys or your local tire shop or dealership)
Gordon
I normally use a bead of super glue to hold the weights in place.
Nick
Haven’t built an accurail; but if I need a weight to stay in place I use double-sided duct tape. A good-sized roll runs about 4-6 bucks, will last a while, and It’ll stay put. I used to use CA, but it tends to lose it’s grip over time.
I use double sided 3M foam tape to fasten down weights inside cars.
I also wash the weight with a good grease cutting soap, Dawn is one national brand, and allow the weights to air dry completely. This removes any traces of cutting oil and other greases that may be on the weight. The idea is to give the tape as clean a surface as possible to adhere to.
Mark Gosdin
When I used pennies I just covered them in white glue over the entire inside bottom of the car. It dries to form a plastic like block wedged in the bottom.
Enjoy
Paul
After about 15 years the Goo will release. The siliconized caulk is better in my experience. Although, in 15 more years I will likely not care one way or the other.
I have yet to see a glue or caulk that will hold a weight in place for any appreciable length of time especially if your cars spend time lying on their side in a box. Epoxy, contact cement, silicone sealant, caulking, and ca will all fail, some sooner than others. Also, there are some glues that will continue to “work” long after they’ve been applied, and by “work” I don’t mean “function as intended”. Rather, they continue to chemically “work” on dissolving or distorting the plastic floor of the car.
I’ve found a cheap and reliable method of retaining weights in Accurail cars, as shown below. First, straighten the weight so that it won’t rock when sitting atop a smooth, flat surface. Usually, the weight is bowed somewhat, so flip it over to test from both sides.
Most Accurail cars have a recessed area on the lower edge of the interior of the sides - the top of the floor is meant to seat against the stop formed by the thicker part of the sides. This positions the weight, which sits atop the floor, within the lower reaches of the thickest part of the car sides. I used a caliper to measure the thickness of the steel weight, (.076") then used it again to scribe a line inside the carbody at a point .076" deeper into the upside down car than the “lip” against which the floor seats.
I next used lacquer thinner to cement four .080" blocks, cut from Evergreen strips, two to each side of the car, as shown. Their bottom surface (top surface in the photos, as the car is upside down) is .076" below the level of where the top of the floor will be when the car is assembled.
Let the cement harden fully - I prefer overnight - to allow all of the solvents to evapourate. When fully cured, fit the weight into place (no additional glue is required), then install the floor:
i use the 3M double stick foam tape. 18 years on some of them and none have come loose yet.
grizlump
I also use the double sided tape for cars that I’m putting together quickly, but I also use silicone caulk for cases where it will have enough time to set up (about 20 min). Either solution is easily reversable and not as damaging as Goo or ACC.
Len S
The only enclosed cars I’ve built recently are Branchline. They come with a pair of large steel nuts for weights, and there are molded bosses in the inside floor to hold them in place. I us CA. Since they run a bit light, I then s CA to build 2 stacks of pennies, each with about 5 pennies (car plus 10 pennies is about right by my scale for the NMRA recommended weight), and then I CA the stacks in the car near the nuts (the nuts are directly over the kingpins). I haven’t had any come loose yet, and the last batch survived getting packed back into my luggage and thrown inthe back of the car, since I built them while on a business trip. The only casualty was my bottle of Tenax, after 7 years of using this stuff I finally managed to knock over an open bottle.
The only cars I’ve built recently with flat steel weights have been Stewart and Athearn open hoppers. Since those weights are visible, I first lightly sand them and line them up on a cardboard box and give each side 2 coats of cheap flat black spraypaint from WalMart. Once dry, I attach them to the cars with CA (some also sort of snap in), plus once the frame is assembled to the hopper body, it usually also holds the weight in.
–Randy
Not sure about how it affect plastic, but what about Liquid Nails. I know if doesn’t affect foam If it will hold my shop cabinets up (going on 8 years), it should hold a few ounces of weight.