02-11-2009, 10:26 PM
You're right about that, Pete. Balancing the loco while maintaining the stock weight would have been preferable to simply adding weight, but still leaving the loco unbalanced.
The loco shown below, belonging to my good friend Mister Nutbar, was severely back-heavy when we first got it, mostly due to the extremely large can motor used to re-power it. While I didn't think to weigh it before doing the conversion work on it, I knew that it would need to be balanced in order to improve both its pulling ability and its tracking qualities, as the lead drivers actually lifted off the rails on some curves.
![[Image: BeegBoy130.jpg]](https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/doctorwayne/CNR%20BEEG%20BOY/BeegBoy130.jpg)
The new cab, a cast brass one from Kemtron, made the loco even more back-heavy, so I cast a new main boiler weight for it, in addition to the lead-filled airtanks. With the new weights installed, I found the loco to now be heavy in the front end.
While I could have added more weight inside the cab, in order to achieve proper balance, I felt that the motor was too close to its limits to make this feasible. Instead, I trimmed back the boiler weight until the loco was balanced about the centre-point of the driver wheelbase. With a weight of 32oz. (loco only) she'll handle the same 100oz. train that requires two of the rebuilt Mikados.
Wayne
The loco shown below, belonging to my good friend Mister Nutbar, was severely back-heavy when we first got it, mostly due to the extremely large can motor used to re-power it. While I didn't think to weigh it before doing the conversion work on it, I knew that it would need to be balanced in order to improve both its pulling ability and its tracking qualities, as the lead drivers actually lifted off the rails on some curves.
The new cab, a cast brass one from Kemtron, made the loco even more back-heavy, so I cast a new main boiler weight for it, in addition to the lead-filled airtanks. With the new weights installed, I found the loco to now be heavy in the front end.
While I could have added more weight inside the cab, in order to achieve proper balance, I felt that the motor was too close to its limits to make this feasible. Instead, I trimmed back the boiler weight until the loco was balanced about the centre-point of the driver wheelbase. With a weight of 32oz. (loco only) she'll handle the same 100oz. train that requires two of the rebuilt Mikados.Wayne