At the San Leandro Historic Railway Society’s winter show I won a Kato NW2 switcher from the raffle.  I am happy to say that this model turned out pretty well, and runs nicely on DC.  Unfortunately is was very difficult to install the decoder for DCC in this model, as no room is available inside of the model.  I was forced to mill out a portion of the weight under the hood to allow enough room for a N scale decoder from NCE. On the plus side the Kadee couplers I used to replace the horn-hook style couplers included with the model slid right into the existing pockets once I assembled them.

Two different options for the exhaust stacks were included, indicating the phase one and phase two (as built).  The detail parts were crisply molded and easily installed, with only minor enlarging of a couple of holes.  The directions were very clear and used diagrams of both the model and the parts sprues indicating the location for each part.  For the smaller parts duplicates were included in case of damage.  The directions stated that these parts could be just snapped into place, however I used Zap-A-Gap to make sure they would not fall out.  The lights use yellow LED’s, which I admit look a little strange – and I will be changing them out eventually.

Other than the difficulty in installing a DCC decoder into this model I would have given it top marks.

• Overall: 7
• Provided parts: 10
• Instructions: 10
• Value for price: 7
• Overall quality: 8

Once you have completed building the tool it is now time to use it.  To properly use the tool you put the car onto the track (the re-railer makes it much easier).  Hook the coupler into the Kadee tool and look at the markings at the opposite end of the car.  Look at the mark closest to the end of the car to find your weight, it will be the number marked plus 1 ounce.

For example, this uncompleted InterMountain car reaches the line marked 3 1/2, so I will need to make sure that the car weighs in at 4 1/2 ounces.

I measure my cars on a jewler’s scale, but any scale capable of measuring in ounces can be used.

Here is a picture showing the weights (available from Micro-Mark)  installed into the car, as you can see I needed to add 2 ounces.

One of the most important things you can do to make sure that your model railroad cars run properly is to make sure that they have been weighted to meet NMRA standards.  This helps in making sure that the cars will not jump off of the track when pulling a long train.  It also assists in making sure that your locomotives will be able to pull the correct amount of cars, especially when you have a grade on your layout.

One of the easiest ways to measure cars to figure out their correct weight is to build a tool.

I built this tool by using a scrap of wood, some track and a Kadee coupler height tool.  I also used some roadbed, but it is not necessary.   I used a scrap of wood about 3/4 of an inch larger than the width of the track and fastened the track to it using normal track nails.  The re-railer makes it much easier to set cars on the track.  After assembling the Kadee coupler height tool, I screwed it into place at one end of the track.  The next step is draw a line even with the center of the coupler on the Kadee tool next to the track.  Use a measuring tape (or ruler) and measure off 1 inch increments, and mark as you see in the picture.

In my next post I will describe how to use the tool to figure out the correct weight for the car being measured.