Weight in Dummy car of HST

[ColinB]

I was checking my HST today and picked up the dummy car, I noticed it has the same weight in it as the driving car. Does it need it? I took the weight out which is 54 grams, which I suspect is equivalent to several additional carriages which probably explains why I have been having a lot of issues with driver wheels traction. Even with the weight out it is still quite heavy with the weghts on the wheels.

[Going Spare]

The only word of caution I would mention is stability.  Stability when the power car is propelling and the non-powered driving car is the leading vehicle transitioning from straight to curved track on the flat and negotiating pointwork particularly on the diverging route when running at perhaps overscale speeds.

[Stubaggieboy]

Hi Colin.

               Before I replaced all of my ringfield drive HST's and replaced them with the later version I removed the weights from the dummy power cars for exactly the same reason and they run perfectly fine.

Regards

                 Stu.

[96RAF]

Makes me wonder why we load weights into lightweight tanks and wagons then to make them run better.

[ColinB]

Yes, on some carriges and wagons you need to add weight because they are so light they derail. I had to do it to my Lima DMU. I only noticed the weight in the dummy car when I tried to get my Ringfield based Sir Nigel Gresley (upgraded to 5 pole) to pull my HST without the driver unit, it was slipping like mad. Even without the weight the trailer unit is still heavy, it has weights on each bogie.

[graham_bartram]

I did exactly the same and now the loco can pull several more coaches than it could with the weight in the trailing HST car - went from struggling to pull 4 coaches to managing 8 with ease.

[atom3624]

Must admit I'm very surprised it cannot handle a 'normal train' of 8 or 9 carriages - is the motor requiring attention / are the tyres in need of replacement?

 

My 'Super Detail' Virgin HST has no problems with 'too many' and can easily pull them in excess of a scale 120+ mph - if there's the room / track to handle it!!

 

Al.

[The Doc]

The wheels on the dummy car aren't very free-wheeling either.  Rather than being on pinpoint axle bearings they just use the same chassis/bogie as the non-powered (pick-up only) bogie on the powered car.  If it were possible to adapt the bogie frames to take brass cup bearings it would probably roll much more freely.