how much weight should be add for 40-45’ contanors that ride in well cars?rambo1…
Do your well cars ride the rails with or without containers more often. If you run them empty a fair bit, I would be sure the cars were close to NMRA standards for their length and leave your containers light, so as not to make the total weight too much over standard. If you run them full most of the time, weight the cars and divide the difference between car weight and standards weight by the number of containers on each car. If you run some single stack and some double stack, you could put a mark on the bottoms of the containers to indicate if they were for a 2 or 4 container load.
Just a thought.
Richard
I prefer full most of the time. Should i use a scale? rambo1…
Yes, use a scale. A simple digital scale will work, mine is from Harbor Freight. A postal scale from your local office supply store will do alright too. Weigh the car and containers. Look at the NMRA recommended weight for a car that length. I would suggest dividing the added weight in the lower containers, if you are double stacking, to keep the center of gravity as low as possible.
Have fun,
Richard
I wouldn’t worry about the NMRA recommended weight for cars when dealing with container cars. Add weight to the BOTTOM container only and get it as centered as you can. They will lean if you don’t and look unrealistic. I used stick on wheel weights in mine. I move my containers around so adding to the NMRA spec is pointless. If your containers are staying with the car then use the NMRA standard.
What are stick on wheel weights? Never heard of them.
Go to any tire shop and ask for them. They are a flat weight with a sticky backing. You use them on mag wheels instead of the ones you see mounted on the outside of rims. They get stuck to the inside of the rim and make the rim look better and doesn’t damage them.
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