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I have added as much weight as would fit into two Athearn BB GPs and they weigh in at 13.9 ozs and 15.9 ozs respectively. I didn't find any NMRA weight guidelines for locos and I'm just wondering if there such a thing as too much weight for locos.
I like to run them hard so I put as much weight as I can stuff in them. the draw back is it is harder on the gears and motors so you may have to replace them sooner? also as long as you can still get wheel slip you have a safty margin for the flow of current and shoukd be safe from frying a decoder. Just last week I put in 3oz of weight in a steam engine it went from being able to pull 30 cars to 48 all by itself
i know that heavier the loco is, bigger the amount of start up power will be needed
http://www.nmra.org/
edit; someone at my club told me that multypling by 5 the chart would be good for the loco, but that's a rule of thumb, usually the loco weight around 1 lbs
Generally, it's hard to overload a locomotive with too much weight. I should qualify that. It's hard to overload a DC locomotive with too much wieght. If you've ever seen the gigantic weight in an Athearn "Super Power" F unit, you'll know what I mean. DC motors are pretty conservatively rated and can run well above specs without damage.
With DCC, we now have a decoder to worry about. In modern engines, the motor normally only draws .3 or .4 amps, so you still have some overload protection in a 1 amp decoder. Athearn BB engines with the original motor are another matter. They can easily draw .8 amps with even a normal size train and the standard weight. Start adding more weight and you may have a problem. I'd use a meter and measure what the engines are pulling at full slip. If it's getting close to an amp, I'd back off on the weight or replace the motor with a newer Athearn motor that draws less amps. It's also a lot better to use less weight and add another locomotive to the consist to reduce the wear and tear on both engines, since it's so easy to do in DCC.
It's also a lot better to use less weight and add another locomotive to the consist to reduce the wear and tear on both engines, since it's so easy to do in DCC.
That makes sense. I plan to run all my trains with consists of 2 to 3 engines and around 12 cars per train. If I see some wheel slippage on my grades, I can always add a few ounces.
I mainly run steam so the reason I like to add weight is so that I can take one med/large sized steam engine and get it to pull 50 cars around. IMO if you have a standard train with less than 25-30 cars it looks silly to have 2 large steam engines pulling it. same with diesels. When I see three newer 6 axel diesels pulling 30 cars the engines make up about 1/3 of the train length. But as we all dont belong to a club we cant allways operate to a 1:1 scale.
This old PFM/United USRA Light 2-8-2 tips the scales at 1.5lbs. The previous owner stuffed every nook and cranny with sheet lead. She has no problem pulling nice long consists with any problem, there are no traction tires on my models. Mike
Adding weight to diesels has not been necessary in my experience. Adding weight to steamers is usually done with sheet lead. I make sure the weight is added so that the loco is balanced over the center drivers, or the center of the driver sets. I don't add so much that the loco will stall. The drivers should still slip, or you could burn out the motor. This has worked well for me. YMMV. Expecting your models to pull like the prototype? Get ready to be disappointed. It is possible under certain circumstances, but there is a problem (and I've said this before): Physics does not scale. The grades and curves on our layouts are also steeper and sharper than anything the prototype did. Do your best and be happy.
I have two big SDP40F's (one Athearn BB chassis and one Proto 2000 chassis) that are paired up to pull in tandem. They weigh a total of 4 pounds (64 ounces). They are both equipped with Digitrax DZ125 Z Scale decoders and usually run for hours at a time with no problem pulling a train that weighs close to 10 pounds (NMRA weighted cars). The decoders can handle 1 amp, 1.5 amps peak.
She has an appointment with the paint shop, as soon as my NKP details arrive in mail so I can change everything prior to paint. I will say the Mike will pull fairly prototypical length consists if I go by some of the typical train sheets I saved from the NKP freighthouse here in town. Balance is very important in a steamer. I had an Athearn version of the USRA Light Mike and it was tail heavy and very prone for the lead driver to climb over the rail head on any curves, even running light sometimes. Took lots of squeezing bits of lead into hidden spots around the pilot and behind the smoke box door to get it closer to balanced. Mike
