I’m trying to get my cars up to spec with regard to NMRA weight standards. I have an HO tank car that is brown and says Tootsie Roll on the side. It weighs in at 2 oz out of the box and the NMRA spec recommends 4 oz. I’d like to some additional weight but there is no good place to hide it since the car is just a tube on a frame. I thot of opening the top and pouring something inside but its molded plastic and doesn’t unscrew or unsnap. Is there a way to cleanly cut open the top and then replace it after putting weight inside. Any ideas on how to add weight to these kinds of cars?
this is too funny. After I posted my question I seen your post. You posted your post while I was composing my post. Looking forward to the replies and insight from the fellow modelers.
I believe this car has a sustantial frame structure. You can add weight by shaping/ cutting sheet lead and glueing to the inside of the frame member. Changing the wheelsets to IM or JB will add weight also.(JB is a fairly heavy wheelset compared to others)
I haven’t found any of these type of cars too have derailment issues by running a little light.
If you do want to increase the weight and need to add it inside the tank, this can be done by drilling a hole on the underside and adding BBs or lead shot. If you don’t want the balls to move about, add some white glue, plug the hole, shake it around to allow the balls/ weight to settle evenly and set aside to let the glue coated balls to dry. I have done this a few times in the past but as I have mentioned, the metal wheelsets and some strip lead has proved to be sufficient.
This Varney tankcar is all plastic, with no weight included. I drilled a hole through the underframe and into the tank, then added BBs, bringing the car’s weight up to about 3.5oz. I didn’t bother to glue them in place - a quick roll back-and-forth levels them nicely, and the car tracks well.
I’ve owned this car for 50 years or so, and recently upgraded it with metal sill steps and grabirons, along with new brake rigging. The lettering is from Champ.
Darn, I seem to feel pretty dumb after I ask these questions and get such great answers. I would never have thought of drilling a hole in the bottom to get to the inside. I’ll look into the flashing too. Thanks.
This is the first tank car I’ve heard of that doesn’t come apart and I have a couple that are around thirty years old. Most of mine are held together by two screws. They’re located just behind the trucks and hold the frame to the car body. In many cases the bottom of the car body is part of the frame.
I have used the lead alloy with low melting point with good success. It was called “Behr Metal” which was a product of Behr Locomotive Company, and they are now out of business. If anyone knows of another source, please tell us.
The product is heavy metal and melts at about 150 F. Then it can be poured into a plastic model with no damage. My recent project was to add weight to plastic steel mill cars.
In addition to weighting properly, it is good to replace plastic wheelsets with good quality metal wheel sets.
I find that an oversize sweatshirt works really well at hiding the extra weight. [:D] Seriously, have you checked the ends of the tanker. I had one that was a kit and the ends were separate pieces that could be removed. If that’s not feasible, I would flatten some self-attaching wheel weight, shape them to the bottom of the tanker, then paint them to match the tanker.
I gete my sheet lead at the hardware store, they call it lead flashing. It comes nice and soft and cuts with snips or even sissors.
David Star
For getting very clean or precise cuts with the lead flashing, score and fold then back score and break. You can even accordian fold the lead if desired.
