Q) I'm in HO and looking for some info about how to make sure that all my rolling stock are in gauge and are able to run together. Can you help?

A) Well, the NMRA RPs contain much of the information that you are looking for, but there are some very simple rules that you can use and you won't have to wade through all of them.

1) Get an NMRA gauge for HO. This one tool will let you check your wheel spacing, track gauge, turnouts, coupler height and clearances. It was designed to incorporate the Standards and Recommended Practices into one tool. With it you can easily check wheel spacing and wheel flange depth. Most wheelsets can be adjusted by twisting the wheels on the axles to adjust spacing.

If you have a problem with derailments, you can check wheels, and with another portion if the gauge, you can check your track and turnouts to look for problems. When your wheels are too close together and the track is too far apart, you can have derails. In Standard S-4 (Wheels) we use the terms Check Gage, Back to Back of Flanges, Tire Width and Flange Depth. None of that do you need to know if you have a gauge and learn how to use it. There are some pretty good instructions with it.

2) Use wheel sets with an RP-25 contour. This works best with track conforming to S-3 (Track Work) and RP-11 (Curvature and Rolling Stock). Again, if you look for wheels with an RP-25 contour, you don't have to worry about what the Standard and RP actually says. Athearn, MDC, Kadee and other quality manufacturers make trucks and wheel sets that meet this specification. The old Tyco, Life-Like, Bachmann, Model Power starter set cars generally do not. The new Life-Like high quality cars wheels meet the RP-25. Many of the older cars have wheels with deep, sharp 'cookie cutter' flanges.

3) RP-11 (Curvature and Rolling Stock) is a good RP to read anyway. It gives you a pretty good idea about what size car and locomotive will go around what radius curve according to your scale. In other words, an 85 foot passenger car will have problems on an 18 inch radius curve and look really bad. Tight turns call for shorter cars.

4) RP-20.1 (Car Weight) gives you a guide for weighting your cars for best performance when running a variety of different cars and wheels. It is a guide. You may be able to use less weight if your trackwork is very good and all of your cars have similar wheel sets and couplers. The important thing is to have a system. For HO, the RP-20.1 shows:

                     ADDITIONAL WEIGHT
               INITIAL WGT          per inch of car body length
   SCALE        (ounces)         +          (Ounces)
   --------------------------------------------------------------
    HO             1             +             1/2
    HOn3          3/4            +             3/8

5) Use a Kadee type knuckle coupler. I also recommend buying a Kadee Coupler Height Gauge as well. Raise or lower your couplers to match this gauge and you will save yourself much heartache. You can shim trucks to bolsters to raise the car floor to raise the coupler. Kadee has small washers for just that purpose. Lowering coupler height may be a little tougher requiring shims under the coupler pocket or even some filing. The important thing is to get the height the same and match the gauge. The NMRA gauge is useful here, but the Kadee gauge is much better for their coupler.

Rusty Spike Vol 30 #3 Summer 2000

For more information about the NMRA Standards and RPs, visit http://www.nmra.org/standards.

Q.) I'm modeling the late 1970s and early 1980s and I need to know when roofwalks were removed from boxcars.

A.) Beginning in 1966, new boxcars no longer were built with roofwalks. They were to be removed by 1978, but this was extended several times to 1981. For the most part, roofwalks had disappeared by the mid-1970s although a few could still be found in the late 1980's. So, for your rolling stock, you would want very few, if any, roofwalks.

Rusty Spike Vol 30 #5 Nov-Dec 2000

Q) Regarding 1950s-era box steel roof box cars. Many roofs were made from galvanized steel. To which many paints did not adhere well. Any ideas on how his can be replicated in HO scale? - Jim

A) Paint the roof silver or a light gray. Let it dry. Then paint a sporadic coating of rubber cement where you want the next coat of paint to come off, apply it with a brush to get streaks in it. Dabbing would work, but brushing would be better. Now, paint the roof color and let it dry thoroughly.

Next, take an eraser and 'gently' erase over the parts where the rubber cement is until it comes off exposing the silver. Weather to suit and you will have a weathered roof with the 'galvanized' roof panels showing through.

This method works well for aging buildings and there is no reason to believe that it shouldn't work on railcars as well. - Roger

Q) Tried it this past weekend. Worked great! Thanks. – Jim

Rusty Spike Vol 32 #3 Nov-Dec 2002

Q) Is there any kind of standard for the weight of locomotives? I use Athearn HO GP units and have been trying to figure out exactly how much they should weigh for optimum traction. - Robert

A) No. I have heard many 'formulas' for weighting locomotives, but it seems to come down to what works for you. I'll tell you what I know.

Your loco should be weighted enough to pull well and not slip the wheels. The danger here is that you will add too much weight and bring the motor to the edge of using too much power, running hot and burning out. An AMP Meter can be an invaluable aid here in adding weight and watching the results on the meter. When you see a heavy increase in current even tho the wheels aren't slipping, you are above the safety limit. Take off some weight.

Many people that have expressed an opinion have said a 4 axle HO diesel should come in at just over a pound to about a pound and a quarter or so. Finding space inside the shell to add this much weight can be a real problem. One modeler just recently said that he always gets his up to a pound and a half. I really think that my old Athearn F7 with the 'Super Weight' came in at about a pound and a half and it would pull the wallpaper off of the walls.

Rusty Spike Vol 29 #3 June-July 1999