In working with N scale rolling stock, a question that comes to mind is how do the car weights compare with a goal or level that will give reliable performance. To get aa handle on this fleet of forty two cars were measured and then compared with the current NMRA RP for N scale cars.
These results are shown here:
Also included in the examination is two other curves based on current NMRA RP equations. The black solid line is the N scale RP. The Green line is the N scale RP divided by 2. The black symbols are the current HO RP equation scaled to the N scale size. Notice this is closer to the divided by 2 line.
From this, if a reference HO car is 6 inches long and weighs 4 ounces, the corresponding N scale care will be 3.26 inches long and weigh 0.643 ounces.
The recent trend of new release car weights are over weighting the N scale cars.
