Before we all break out the NMRA standard 1 oz plus one for every inch or whatever, I wanna get this off. Regardiong the Circus Train, of 56 cars, I had a thought. To help cut down on straightlining, would it be better to keep the providied weights and update the coaches at the front, and leave the flats to the striip provided and any weight from the loads? or would this just create more issues?
On my previous layout I ran about a ten unit intermodal train of Athearn 85’ flats. My layout had good track work and 42" minimum radius on the main. I still had lots of problems with the cars as the loads can make them top heavy. I modified the flats with weight sets made by A-Line that attached to the under side of each end of the car replacing the plastic truck bolster and coupler pocket. The addition of metal wheel sets also helped. The modified cars ran great on my home layout and HO modular club layout. If you are using the Walthers Circus Flats, they may run better than the Athearn flats without modification.
Fortuneatly, I’m on;y going monolevel. I’m actually using the Accurail 89ft flats
This was discuss at length at the Prototypical Operations Sig I am a member of…Our finding was RP20.1 is outdated for modern cars.What to do? Here was the suggestions that came up for food for thought and nothing more…
1.All cars of the same type should weight the same.
2.Run shorter 20-25 car trains.
3.Run trains at prototypical speeds.
4.Keep added weight low on stack cars.
Even after testing several different weights we are still looking into the problem.
However,even after months of discussion we can not come to a agreement even tho’ both HO clubs I am a member of doesn’t use RP20.1 and we have no problems running 25-50 car trains…
Those make sense BRAKIE Though #2 becomes a problem if I want to run the proto look, and not a scaled back version. Pt 4 is void, as even the containers don’t pass the height of the coaches by much. The tallest car is a Bi-Level Autorack, but nothing goes on top level. So in essence, all is single level.
The backup plan is a rear end helper, Which I may do anyway. But I;d like to keep it close to Proto, and they don;t rear engine much of anything in Indiana.
Thanks for the thoughts. I’m still intrested in what others have to say as well.