Plugging away a little more
I finished up my load projects with the 53' gons for Bigfoot Salvage. I'm liking how they came out. It is so nice having so many open load cars and actually have loads on them... no more exchanging empties for empties! Here is a close up of the final load. You can see one bare spot in the close up but with the painted bottom its hard to tell on the layout
![[Image: QZXPgpn.jpghttp:]](https://i.imgur.com/QZXPgpn.jpghttp://)
Both the gons and the woodchip cars have some bar stock added to the inside bottom to get them some weight. Made a big improvement in handling Its functional for now and I will dress them up down the road
![[Image: 3vv1Fkt.jpghttp:]](https://i.imgur.com/3vv1Fkt.jpghttp://)
I have also been working on some weights for the other cars. This has been my biggest issue that needed to be addressed. The little 2 bay hoppers for Seiad Cement were the worst offenders. Since I just shook the box on these cars for now the roofs are not glued on and makes this easy. I used about 20 quarter/20 nuts in each car since I had a big supply of them on hand...... much Much MUCH better now!
![[Image: QoCN8Nj.jpghttp:]](https://i.imgur.com/QoCN8Nj.jpghttp://)
I did whip up this little aid and taped it to the work bench. I can just take a car place it up against it and see what the weight should be in an instant. It is set for the NMRA recommended practice but I'm going to switch it out as I adjusted to 75% of the NMRA recommendation. I know there have been some lively discussions on this but this is what I'm going with.
![[Image: 0Ge4guC.jpghttp:]](https://i.imgur.com/0Ge4guC.jpghttp://)
Finally finished up adding weight to the last of the trouble cars with open loads with the last being the bulkhead flat cars. Man, these things are light coming in at about 25% of the NMRA recommendations. After adding some #7.5 lead shot in almost all of the nooks and crannies of the underside I was able to get them close to 50%. Not ideal but there is a notable improvement in performance. I hit the undercarriage with the Dremel to knock down the molded in detail for the shot. The #7.5 shot is as large as you can fit under there and not be seen when on the track. Clear silicone holds in place.
![[Image: Q9ODtlP.jpghttp:]](https://i.imgur.com/Q9ODtlP.jpghttp://)
Almost caught up, there was more than I thought!
I finished up my load projects with the 53' gons for Bigfoot Salvage. I'm liking how they came out. It is so nice having so many open load cars and actually have loads on them... no more exchanging empties for empties! Here is a close up of the final load. You can see one bare spot in the close up but with the painted bottom its hard to tell on the layout
Both the gons and the woodchip cars have some bar stock added to the inside bottom to get them some weight. Made a big improvement in handling Its functional for now and I will dress them up down the road
I have also been working on some weights for the other cars. This has been my biggest issue that needed to be addressed. The little 2 bay hoppers for Seiad Cement were the worst offenders. Since I just shook the box on these cars for now the roofs are not glued on and makes this easy. I used about 20 quarter/20 nuts in each car since I had a big supply of them on hand...... much Much MUCH better now!
I did whip up this little aid and taped it to the work bench. I can just take a car place it up against it and see what the weight should be in an instant. It is set for the NMRA recommended practice but I'm going to switch it out as I adjusted to 75% of the NMRA recommendation. I know there have been some lively discussions on this but this is what I'm going with.
Finally finished up adding weight to the last of the trouble cars with open loads with the last being the bulkhead flat cars. Man, these things are light coming in at about 25% of the NMRA recommendations. After adding some #7.5 lead shot in almost all of the nooks and crannies of the underside I was able to get them close to 50%. Not ideal but there is a notable improvement in performance. I hit the undercarriage with the Dremel to knock down the molded in detail for the shot. The #7.5 shot is as large as you can fit under there and not be seen when on the track. Clear silicone holds in place.
Almost caught up, there was more than I thought!
Modleing the Jefferson Branch in HO on the Southern Pacific