DEAN DOES DIESELS

A case in point is LGB's 2055 White Pass diesel. Out of the box it is a hefty work of art but it has no traction tire. My partner in crime, Dean Lowe, and I spent some time talking about that because a "stock" White Pass will pull only about ten cars on flat track. The real White Pass would pull about twenty-five. We had to find a way to improve that pulling power.

Dean is a machinist by trade and is responsible for some of the nicest metal wheels on the market; it was relatively easy for him to pull off a rear wheel, cut a groove in it, and install a traction tire. That helped, but we still were unable to pull 25 cars.

So we took apart the engine to see where to add weight inside. The body consists of three parts and, if you remove about eight screws from under the engine, the superstructure will lift off the frame. (When you remove the cab, be careful of the handrails.) With the locomotive in pieces we realized it had plenty of space, even after we installed a sound system.

Fishing tackle stores are very good sources of inexpensive weights. They sell a variety of lead castings, each with a label stating the exact weight. The sizes vary from a few ounces to several pounds. I added two one pound weights and one two pounder to my White Pass. The two pound weight went toward the front of the long hood, the first one pounder into the nose, and the second toward the rear, directly over the trucks. LGB's motors and gears are of such high quality they easily handled the extra heft.

The result? Five of our modified White Pass (now Rio Grande) road diesels pulled 122 cars on the Del Oro Pacific modular layout at the 1990 LGB Model Railroad Club National Convention in Long Beach. The scale speed was 18 miles per hour and, unlike out-of-the-box models, ours experienced no wheel slippage.

"MEGA-TRAINING" MOGULS AND MALLETS

LGB's Moguls also easily accept more weight. I have two Colorado & Southern 2019S engines, each capable of pulling 24 heavy short ore cars over flat track. Again, thanks to Dean Lowe's brass domes and smokestack, it is possible to add a couple of pounds to a locomotive before ever going inside. Of course, the procedure does require removing the existing plastic stack and domes.

If you want even more heft, most hobby shops offer those small, half- and quarter-ounce lead weights with the double-sided tape. They are ideal for sticking to the underside of the Mogul's frame or underneath the boiler running boards..

Another LGB engine ripe for weight is the Mallet. I have converted mine from a European locomotive to an articulated version reminiscent of some on the Denver & Rio Grande Western. The engine already has traction tires and, out of the box, will pull a lot of cars. But why settle for "a lot" when you can pull a "mega train"?

Only a few screws hold the body to the frame, but the screws are hard to reach; they sit between the two sets of driver blocks and the frame. If you pop out the side tanks, you may swing the driver blocks to the side and it becomes much easier to reach the screws.

The boiler and flat side tanks have plenty of room for lead. I added about 2 1/2 pounds to my Mallet. Some went in those side tanks, some into the boiler in front of the circuit board, and the rest into the boiler behind the circuit board.

My engine has a tender from a Bachmann Big Hauler. I had to add weight so it would stay on the track with a long train behind it. The engine/tender combination now handles about 35 cars, almost double the capacity LGB indicates the unmodified engine will pull. I have experienced no problems because of the additional weight.

OTHER MANUFACTURERS' MODELS

So far, the possibility of damage to the engines has been of little concern because all are LGB products. The quality of their motors and gears is renowned. Modifying some other manufacturers' models require more conservatism.

On the positive side, I made a Lionel Atlantic heavier by adding a pair of one pound fishing weights inside the boiler. It dealt with the extra weight just fine, even without a traction tire. (It did have other problems, though: The steel in the drivers is so porous you must clean the wheels every time you run the engine or it will stall. And the plastic in the tender trucks is too thin; one almost disintegrated while the engine was pulling a long string of cars.)

On the negative side, an ARISTO-CRAFT Pacific simply died in the middle of a lap, and I had added no weight to the engine at all. It and the tender are heavy enough as they come from the box but I did add a little lead to the tender to make it more stable when pulling a long train. Then I coupled 19 Delton boxcars behind the Pacific and she began to lose momentum with each trip around the Del Oro Pacific layout. After about the sixth lap, she stopped altogether. A typical LGB loco will complain about her load by spinning her wheels. The ARISTO-CRAFT motor simply gave up! After we dropped off about half the cars the Pacific started right up and ran fine. So it would seem additional weight on that engine might only compound the problem.

SO...

Next time your little LGB 0-4-0 spins its wheels, push on the top of the boiler. The wheels will stop spinning. Then find space for about half a pound of lead in the boiler and, if you want, another a half pound in the cab and side tanks.

Remember, it is fine for you to take weight off your own body but your locomotive should be capable of pulling its own weight. If it only handles three box cars and a caboose, your railroad will be operating at a loss. Pulling power produces profits.