Couplings...

[Dad-1]

Hi Tom,

Those weights are fine, my craving for the lightest that will work O.K is because I
used to run trains of 50+ wagons and with that many the draw weight adds up !!

I've trimmed some of my hard foam off and if you want PM your address and I can
send off to you.

Last evening I shunted back & forth deciding that 20 grams overall is the minimum
for ideal Kadee shunting. I'm certainly not pedantic, my heaviest wagon comes in at
125 grams !! A Hornby bogie bolster with a solid resin block of girders that Hornby
used to sell as wagon loads. For whatever reason it's sister wagon is a gram lighter.

Your magnets were well merged into the scenery of a crossing and I couldn't identify
in that overall picture. I'd like to shunt that scene.

Geoff T.

[Bigmet]

It's a while ago but I looked into wagon weight and came across 2 recommended ways to calculate the weight of a wagon.
1. 25g per axle
2. 5g per cm length.

These are certainly useful, not least for the suggestion that some thought should be given to vehicle weight adjustment.

I find that for UK short wheelbase wagons on four wheels, 15g per axle is adequate, and anything up to 40g per axle can be accepted, (I have a number of whitemetal construction wagons, much heavier than plastic kit or current RTR OO plastic wagons)
I use the '5g rule for every 10mm' (or part thereof) increase in wagon length due to a wheelbase exceeding 40mm, but not exceeding 80g total weight for a four wheel wagon.

Bogie wagons, the 25g per axle rule is a good starting point, (takes care of six wheel bogies too) no surprise as it was created for North American all bogie vehicle rolling stock. I find it works for bogie vehicles up to 180mm long, after which selectively adding weight as wagon length increases may be required, more like 5g per extra 20mm. The weight required depends on the stability of both the bogie mounting and the coupling mounting.

So that's quite a range of vehicle weights within most of my freight trains: greatest range 30g to 180g, there can be up to 60 wagons in a train, and a maximum length of 5.3m including traction. Minimum radius curve is 30"/750mm, and the free rolling requirement for all wheelsets is 'rolls away from a stand on a true 1 in 100' = 1% incline', and ideally much better than that, to prevent any risk of 'stringlining'. Free rolling capability is more important than vehicle weight: as also is coupler alignment, especially when either propelling a train or slowing a train when moving downhill.