Wagon weights

[cromptonnut]

I remember over the years of my 4mm modelling that there have been various discussions as to the 'ideal weight' of a wagon, with various suggestions such as "liquid lead" etc to increase the weight to aid slow running.

 

Has such a decision ever been had about O gauge wagons, as I'm currently building my first Slaters kit. I noticed that, in its half built state, it was quite bouncy on the track, but with a jar of Coleman's Mustard sitting inside it the running was much improved... but was almost 300 g which is probably a little excessive (plus I don't fancy sealing a jar of mustard inside every wagon I build).

 

Thanks for any advice.

[66C]

The Gauge O Guild does give a recommendation in their manual along with typical additional weight suggestions for a range of kits. In round figures the target overall weight is 1 gram per mm body length of the vehicle.

 

See section D4.2.3 of the manual.

 

Regards

[cromptonnut]

I don't have the "manual", sorry.

 

Is that 1g per mm additional weight on top of the weight of the wagon itself, or 1g per mm including the weight of the wagon?

 

 

[mike hughes]

Try for a target of 200g for a wagon.

 

Michael

[Steph Dale]

I use an interpretation of the NMRA RP20.1. Roughly:

 

1oz PLUS 1oz per axle PLUS 1oz per inch (length over headstocks)

 

Metric equivalent being approximately:

25g plus 25g per axle, PLUS 10g per cm (length over headstocks)

 

I hope that helps,

 

Steph

[mikeg]

Hi, I have found that 5 to 6 oz is the best for wagons as lest and they tend to derail with the length of the train on tight curves (5ft) and if heavier then the same can happen if any have a tight axle/bearing plus the loco weight needs to be excessive to pull a reasonable length of train.

 

The exception is bogie stock which depends on the mass of the bogie frames, light plastic and they derail easily so need the weight to be placed in the bogie rather than the body. I have added 25mm strips of 5lb lead sheet to give a bogie weight of about 2oz, white metal or brass ones need little extra as they are heavy in themselves.

 

I have found that brass tophat bearings are not as good as pin point but with light machine oil run fairly freely, tried 3in1 with very poor results, had to clean all the bearings and re-oil. A soft pencil will also help free running if put on the axle end before assembly into the top hat, best bearings I have ever seen were PTFE, the wagons would roll on a 1 in 1000 gradient and could be moved by blowing them along.

 

hope the above is helpful, but please join the guage0guild as they have a mass of information in the manual and it now come electronically so is easy to access at anytime, been a member for 38 years and I still find very useful tips from the quarterly mag, worth the membership fee alone!

 

regards

 

mike g