Model Railroading > Walther’s G85 Flats weight problem

I picked up a couple of the Walthers G85 flat cars in the piggyback version . I weighed the cars and they are 2.9 ounces with no trailers . 40 foot trailers are about 1 ounce each . An Atlas 89 foot flat weighs 5.7 ounces without trailers.
This light , of a car unless run at the rear of the train will cause problems . The container version can have the containers weighted to compensate and still have a low center of gravity . You can’t weight the trailers as the center of gravity will be too high . You could add weight to the center beam of the car and cover with a styrene strip .
Has anyone else come up with a solution for the low weight problem ? Even running these cars on wide radius curves will give you problems just like the old Athearn 85 foot flat cars did .

Dave

Posted from iPhone

There was some lead in the model railroad market that was either plyable like putty or could be made so by heating with boiled water. It could be put in the center sill.. Of course, if working with lead, wash your hands or use gloves, and don't expose it to a cooking pot.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

I think you are looking for Bismuth, the low-temperature melting alloy.  It melts at under 200 degrees and is used to repair die sets in industrial applications.

It used to be sold as TempLo and other names.  The benefit is that it is not poisonous like lead as it it the 'Bis' component in Pepto-Bismol

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was some lead in the model railroad market
> that was either plyable like putty or could be
> made so by heating with boiled water. It could be
> put in the center sill.. Of course, if working
> with lead, wash your hands or use gloves, and
> don't expose it to a cooking pot.
>
> Victor A. Baird
> http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

I am a retired printer. I worked with lead for the first 30 years of my working life. The danger from exposure to lead is exaggerated in the media. Handling little bits of it to add weight to a model train car poses no threat to you. For what you describe you could probably use lead solder. Ordinary lead will melt at 425 degrees F. Find some old toy soldiers and melt them.
Bill Pyper
Lacey, Washington
 

I was referring to a product that came in a small bag, specifically for the model railroad market. I couldn't find the stuff I am familiar with, but this product will certainly do the trick for the OP.

https://www.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=DLMR1037&P=FR&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuaW1z_qQ5wIViLzACh0pPwAUEAQYAyABEgI-u_D_BwE

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

penncentral74 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think you are looking for Bismuth, the
> low-temperature melting alloy.  It melts at under
> 200 degrees and is used to repair die sets in
> industrial applications.
>
> It used to be sold as TempLo and other names. 
> The benefit is that it is not poisonous like lead
> as it it the 'Bis' component in Pepto-Bismol



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/20 16:51 by wabash2800.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was some lead in the model railroad market
> that was either plyable like putty or could be
> made so by heating with boiled water. It could be
> put in the center sill.. Of course, if working
> with lead, wash your hands or use gloves, and
> don't expose it to a cooking pot.
>
> Victor A. Baird
> http://www.erstwhilepublications.com
If heated should be outside with a propper mask that takes care of chemicals not a little white dust mask.

I don't recall the product being boiled but rather the hot water used to soften it.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

BAB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If heated should be outside with a propper mask
> that takes care of chemicals not a little white
> dust mask.

I have been running a 40 car intermodal train on the 2020 PC with an empty Walthers PC  flat as the head car just to see how it did track. Granted I am not dealing with any grades, and my minimum radus is 36" - most are 48 or greater - but it tracked fine. I would never try it if I had many curves on grades. 

I will add that my trackwork is very carefully laid...and I use Peco Code 83 track and turnouts exclusively.  Derailments of any kind are rare. 

Bob

dmaffei Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I picked up a couple of the Walthers G85 flat cars
> in the piggyback version . I weighed the cars and
> they are 2.9 ounces with no trailers . 40 foot
> trailers are about 1 ounce each . An Atlas 89 foot
> flat weighs 5.7 ounces without trailers.
> This light , of a car unless run at the rear of
> the train will cause problems . The container
> version can have the containers weighted to
> compensate and still have a low center of gravity
> . You can’t weight the trailers as the center of
> gravity will be too high . You could add weight to
> the center beam of the car and cover with a
> styrene strip .
> Has anyone else come up with a solution for the
> low weight problem ? Even running these cars on
> wide radius curves will give you problems just
> like the old Athearn 85 foot flat cars did .
>
> Dave
>
> Posted from iPhone

I got the GTTX and SP G-85s up to 3.7 oz. by adding strips of lead sheet behind the placards.  I simply trimmed and straightened strips to fit from a foot-square slab of 1/16" thick lead sheet I bought online recently, specifically for car weighting purposes (especially flat cars). They're affixed with a liberal dose of canopy glue. I painted to match the car color,  but the weigh is actually invisible from all angles but bottom-up.

You could add additional half ounce or so between the center sills, and painted flat black or dark brown it would be mostly out of sight if the flat is loaded with two 40 foot trailers.  You would lose the minimal detail that appears in that trough on the model though, and I plan to run a couple of the cars as empties, so I didn't go that far.

Chris Frissell
Polson,MT.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/20 10:29 by np7009d.