Hi all,

I have been thinking of adding some lead weights to some of my lightweight locomotives and rolling stock to improve their running on the tracks. Mostly to some very lightweight locomotives just weighting under 200 grams. DHG 700 and DB BR 89 Delta. Maybe also DB BR 86. I think switching engines DB V 60's and DB BR 260's could also benefit from some extra weight. All locos mentioned are lightweight and they have sometimes difficulties to have a good ground contact through their wheels. Added weight (with lead weights etc.) will give them better ground contact and increase their pulling power and glimbing performance as it prevents them to spin wheels so easily.

One of my friends added lead weights already to his DHG 700 and it improved a lot. He also adjusted the wheels distance to a little wider to also improve the ground contact through the wheels. I will follow his route. I think if the weight could be increased from just under 200 grams to 300-350 grams it will get better.

Has anyone here on the forum any experience of adding weight to locomotives or rolling stock? Did the running get better with the modifications?

Regards,
Janne

I myself have one loco (a Fleischmann BR 13) that needs to have some weight added to it, since it is mostly plastic in the loco itself while the pushing tender is mostly metal - looks rather stupid to have the lightweight loco wobbling & shaking around in front of the stable tender...

My locomotives do not need extra weight,they are all very heavy.The only light unit is the 37615 BR 260 but this locomotive carrying the wagons one by one so one wagon is easy for her to carry it.

I prefer to leave the locomotives the way they are.Maybe you can find an alternative sollution to pull this heavy train.If you decide to put the weights in the loco just be sure that it will possible to remove them in the future.

On our "company layout" we ran a Märklin T44 for a while. It had some problems with traction, so we added weight to it. It definitely improved.

Hi all,

Today I installed lead weights to DHG 700 C and DB BR 89 006 locos. Both have Delta decoders. It was practically impossible to get their weight to 300-350 grams, but I managed to increase both locos weight enough:

DHG 700 C std weight 191 grams, added weight +83 grams = 274 grams

DB BR 89 006 std weight 175 grams, added weight +103 grams = 278 grams

Now both locos run well as they have a good ground contact through wheels to track because they weigh more now. They also pull very well many heavy wagons and climb well uphill . I'm very happy for these results and I will continue to add weight to some other locos like BR 85 and BR 86 for example .

Cheers,
Janne

IMHO I think that all the plastic bodied trains need extra weight in them. I have the ICE 3 with the motor section in the centre carriage and the sliders are in the front and rear carriages. Consequently there is very little weight to keep the front slider from bouncing off the tracks - it only takes a slight bounce and there's a derailment. I also had the Thaylis which I eventually returned to Marklin (4 times) and told them to keep it - that's another story. Inside this train, Marklin had poorly glued some steel blocks in the front and rear carriages to add some weight, but it just wasn't enough. I've even added weight to some wagons that kept derailing - that worked well.

So, in my opinion, if you think it needs weight, then add it.

Regards
Greg

Some locos may need lead weights, but the problem is that they have limited space to add the weight. Moreover most locos that have traction tyres do not need weight added, because they benefit from the traction tyres. My preference is to avoid plastic body locos in any case, even though I have quite few Athearn Genesis plastic body locos, but they are heavy too due to their metal chassis.