On Dec 29, 2004, at 11:49 AM, Mike Brock wrote:

This year I think I'll ask which resin car has no weights included. I'll
admit that I built not one but two resin box cars without including weights.
I DID manage to squeeze some flexible weight in between the center sill "I"
beams of one car. The point is...they don't derail. I will admit that it
does help to have 48" radius curves and #10-12 turnouts. I also happily run
unweighted Detailed Associates and Red Caboose GS gons. Does this mean that
I don't add weights to other cars? Not on your life...I don't want to push
my luck.

Mike:

All believeable, but I bet that your attention to trucks and couplers is quite high and I also bet that your trackwork is good, too. In my experience, while not exceedingly broad, I have found that poor trackwork causes more derailments than problems with the cars. How many layouts have you seen where the track, if viewed at eye level, looks like the ocean and the nails used in the center of track to hold it in place are pushed in as far as they can go thereby forcing the rails to buckle together ever so slightly, squeezing cars off the tracks as they go through this gauntlet. However, the benefit of running an unweighted Steam Era freight car around your layout is that it can find and exploit poor trackwork.

Regards,
Ted Culotta

Speedwitch Media
100 14th Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94402
info@...
www.speedwitch.com
(650) 787-1912